Arab News

ALEPPO, Syria, 30 June 2003 — Syria said yesterday it wants its ties with the United States to improve and was hoping “quiet diplomacy” would resolve a recent incident involving US forces at the Arab country’s borders with neighboring Iraq.

“It is very difficult to tell the future of the relations between any two countries, but we hope that relations between the United States and Syria are going to improve,” Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk Al-Shara told a news conference.

Earlier in June US forces seized five Syrian border guards during a raid on a convoy near the Syrian-Iraqi border. Damascus is seeking their return and has demanded an explanation from Washington.

Shara blamed tensions with Washington on Israel and a possible “lack of understanding” by the US administration.

“We are in favor of dialogue and we have shown them (US officials) that we are serious about it. If there is shortfall in this dialogue it is not because of Syria, it is because of lack of understanding in the administration or because of a third party — and that is Israel to say it openly and frankly.”

Israel “is interfering in the relations between Syria and the United States in a negative way, in an unjust way, (and) in a sinister way,” he said.

Syrian-US relations have been strained over a host of issues, including US accusations that Damascus has helped members of the former Iraqi government flee and that it was developing chemical weapons. Syria denies the charges.

Syria said on Wednesday it had protested to Washington over the border incident, which US officials have described as a military strike.

“We want to pursue quite diplomacy...we hope that our correspondence will deliver positive results for a satisfactory solution to this problem away from any escalation or misunderstanding between Syria and the United States,” Shara said, but he refused to discuss the details of the incident.

US and Syrian officials did not say how the guards were wounded when US special forces attacked a suspicious convoy, or whether the incident took place in Syrian territory.

“Syria supports any true peace and blesses any agreement among the Palestinians which bolsters their unity,” Shara said. “The Palestinian national dialogue is important because it is the pillar of Palestinian national unity,” Shara said. Shara, meanwhile, had harsh words for the US-backed “road map” peace initiative, warning it “marginalized the Syria-Lebanese dossiers.”