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Oil interests guiding U.S.: Assad

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON DEC 18. The outspoken Syrian President, Bashar Assad, rounded off his visit to Britain on a controversial note as he sidestepped diplomatic niceties to criticise his hosts for their support to the U.S. war moves against Iraq, and denounce Britain's West Asia policy as "ostrich-like''.

In a sharp attack on American motives, Mr. Assad said they had more to do with "oil interests'' in the region than Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and maintained that he did not see any threat from Baghdad.

``The priorities the United States has set are not convincing and they are not really related to weapons of mass destruction and Saddam Hussein....the big issue is oil,'' he said and warned that a military intervention in Iraq would destabilise the entire region and breed more terrorism.

His remarks came as the Blair Government disclosed its preparations for deployment of up to 20,000 British troops in the Gulf ahead of a possible U.S.-led attack on Iraq.

Though speculation about Britain's war preparations had been rife for weeks, the Government finally broke its silence on Tuesday even as officials insisted that this did not mean that a war was inevitable.

Mr. Assad's uncompromising statement is seen as a setback to the Prime Minister, Tony Blair's efforts to soften up Syria as Britain and America roll up their sleeves to tackle Iraq. As the only Arab member of the U.N. Security Council, Syria's support would be crucial in any future Anglo-U.S. move against Baghdad. It has made clear that it would oppose an attack on Iraq without a specific U.N. mandate.

Iraq apart, Mr Assad took what commentators termed as an "undiplomatic swipe'' on Mr. Blair for calling a summit of Arab leaders here next month on the Palestinian crisis.

He questioned the summit's agenda and warned that half-baked ideas could cause "more turbulence and disruption in the Middle East (West Asia)''.

Mr. Assad, who was speaking at the Royal Institute of International Affairs on Tuesday, described the summit's proposed focus on pushing `reforms' to the Palestinian Authority as part of Israel-U.S. attempts to marginalise the Palestinian chief, Yasser Arafat, who, significantly, has not been invited to the London summit. The `reforms', he said, were a euphemism for replacing Mr. Arafat with a more pliable Palestinian leadership. Mr Assad, who had a public spat on the Palestinian issue with Mr Blair when the latter visited Damascus last year, said the summit was bound to fail unless the real cause of the crisis was addressed.

Syria is not attending the conference, but there was some confusion whether it had not been invited or had declined to attend. The only Arab countries expected to attend are Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan. They would sit down with representatives of Mr. Arafat and the `Quartet' group comprising the U.N., the E.U., the U.S. and Russia to chalk out structural reforms which, Mr. Blair said, were necessary in order to realise the `vision' of two independent states — "Israel and Palestine living side by side in peace and security''.

While the Blair Government sees the summit as a major diplomatic initiative to break the Palestinian deadlock, critics dismissed it as a tactic to mollify Arab leaders.

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