Damascus - Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told his
Syrian counterpart Wednesday that Iraq will not be a base for raids
on Syria and will soon appoint an Iraqi envoy to Syria.
Zebari, who arrived in Damascus on Tuesday, met with Syrian
Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem. Zebari also delivered a letter
from Premier Nouri al-Maliki to the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The letter added that the Iraqi government had not been aware of
the US raid on the Syrian village of Abu Kamal near the Iraqi border
in late October. Zebari is the first Iraqi official to visit Damascus
since that incident, which left seven people dead.
The US government has not officially commented on the US commando
operation, but unofficial accounts say the target was an al-Qaeda
militant.
Al-Moallem also said that uranium traces found at an alleged
nuclear facility by the United Nations nuclear watchdog IAEA may have
been left by Israeli warplanes that attacked the site.
'No one has ever asked himself what kind of Israeli bombs had hit
the site, and what they contained,' the Syrian minister said, stating
that Israel had bombs containing depleted uranium, such as used by
the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Syrian foreign minister described as politically motivated the
news leaks about the traces found at the site which was bombed by
Israel in September 2007.
'These media leaks are a clear signal that the purpose was to
pressure Syria. This means that the subject is not technical, but
rather political,' said al-Moallem at a news conference with Zebari.
Western diplomats earlier this week in Vienna confirmed that
inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had
found traces of uranium at the suspect site.
The Vienna-based nuclear watchdog is finishing its first written
report on Syria since the United States provided the IAEA with
intelligence indicating Syria had almost completed a reactor,
possibly with the help of North Korean experts.
USA
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