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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, April 15, 2003

US Charges Syria on Chemical Weapons Tests

US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Monday accused Syria of carrying out chemical weapons tests over the past 12 or 15 months.


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US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Monday accused Syria of carrying out chemical weapons tests over the past 12 or 15 months.

"I would say that we have seen the chemical weapons tests in Syria over the past 12 or 15 months," Rumsfeld told reporters after meeting Sabah al-Almad al-Sabah, Kuwaiti first prime minister and minister of foreign affairs, at the Pentagon.

Rumsfeld said the United States has "intelligence" showing that Syria has allowed Syrians and others to cross the border intoIraq. He claimed that these people are either armed or carrying leaflets indicating that they'll be rewarded if they kill Americans and members of the US-led coalition.

Rumsfeld also claimed that Washington has "intelligence" indicating that some Iraqi people have been allowed into Syria to stay or to transit.

US President George W. Bush on Sunday joined the whipping of Syria by accusing Damascus of having chemical weapons while his spokesman Ari Fleischer went further on Monday to brand Syria as a"terrorist state."

US Secretary of State Colin Powell, who met al-Sabah earlier on Monday at the State Department, told reporters that Washington is considering diplomatic and economic sanctions against Syria provided the latter fails to change "behaviors."

In a statement issued Monday, the Syrian Foreign Ministry flatly denied US charges that Syria has chemical weapons or harboring fleeing Iraqi officials.


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