US Threatens Sanctions against Syria as War Near End

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

US Threatens Sanctions against Syria as War Near End

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The US-led war on Iraq is widely believed to be near the end with the US capture on Monday of Tikrit, the last stronghold of toppled Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, while Arab countries fear the risk of a spreading conflict after the United States accused Syria of harboring fugitive Iraqi officials and possessing weapons of mass destruction.

After fierce fighting since Sunday with the hard-core Iraqi army's remnants in Tikrit, the US forces, supported by tanks and airstrikes, captured the hometown of Saddam. With the fall of the northern city, 180 km northwest of Iraqi capital Baghdad, the US-led war in Iraq is believed to be moving into the final phase.

However, the Pentagon said the coalition forces will not declare victory at the moment when they still have danger and pockets of resistance ahead, although large-scale military combat in Iraq is essentially over.

Nonetheless, the United States has begun to withdraw troops. Six F-117 stealth fighters on Monday flew back to the Holman airbase at home, with other aircraft of the base expected to return in the coming days. Meanwhile, US Defense Department officials said the USS Kitty Hawk and the USS Constellation aircraft carriers had received orders to leave the Gulf within this week.

On Tuesday, Australian Defense Minister Robert Hill said his country is working on a withdrawal timetable for some 2,000 Australian soldiers in the Gulf to return home in the near future.

The US Central Command said in Doha, Qatar, that the coalition forces had shifted their focus to hunting for the remnants of Saddam's regime.

The fear that the conflict might spread beyond Iraq was not relieved Monday with a pledge from Britain, Washington's firmest ally in the Iraq war, not to launch military strikes on Syria, as the United States threatened economic and diplomatic sanctions against the country bordering Iraq.

The speculation has surfaced that Syria might be "next on the list." "We made it clear that it is not," British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, who urged full cooperation from Syria in wiping out the remnants of Saddam's regime, told reporters in Bahrain, the first leg of his Gulf tour of six nations including Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

On Sunday, Washington accused Syria of harboring on-the-run officials of Saddam's regime and having weapons of mass destruction, allegations Syria has vehemently denied.

Stopping short of threatening military actions against Syria, US Secretary of State Colin Powell on Monday warned the Arab country of possible economic and diplomatic sanctions and other punitive options while Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld claimed Syria had conducted a chemical weapons test "over the past 12, 15 months."

The European Union on Monday urged Washington to "cool down" its mounting pressure on Syria, warning against further complications in securing peace in the Gulf region.

The Arab League and the Lebanese and Egyptian governments strongly condemned the US charges against Syria. An advisor to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak criticized Washington for its attempt to "target one Arab country after another."

In London, British Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon told reporters on Monday that the coalition forces remained "absolutely convinced" that Iraq has hidden weapons of mass destruction, saying: "The search is proceeding. Obviously, as more areas are liberated, we are getting an increasing amount of information from the local people as to where they think those weapons might be hidden."

British Prime Minister Tony Blair said the coalitions forces were searching seven of the 146 suspect weapons sites in Iraq for evidence.

So far, the United States and Britain have failed to find any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq in support of their war launched on March 20 under the pretext of disarming Iraq, without a UN mandate. The international community has refused to grant legitimacy to the US-led war.

The international community has stepped up efforts toward a central role of the United Nations and multilateralism in postwar reconstruction in the war-shattered Arab country as the conflict in Iraq was moving closer to an end. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan was scheduled to leave New York late Monday for talks with European leaders on developments in Iraq at their summit in Athenslater this week.

Annan was expected to meet separately with French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, whose governments favor a vital and central UN role in postwar Iraq, in opposition to the US plan for the coalition forces to lead in Iraq's reconstruction.

Washington on Monday named a special presidential envoy to Iraq for a possible stay of several weeks there to coordinate public communications, in support of the US-led Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance, which is established by Washington torun the civil administration in Iraq until Iraqis take over.

On Monday, Saudi Arabia reportedly called for an emergency meeting of foreign ministers from countries surrounding Iraq to beheld later this week in order to seek a regional role in postwar Iraq and tackle the consequences of the Iraq war.

Meanwhile, Egyptian President Mubarak and Jordanian King Abdullah II stressed the need for an Arab role in postwar Iraq, withdrawal of foreign troops and a self-government there after their talks in Cairo. The two leaders agreed that they will consult other Arab countries in the coming days to forge a common stance in helping the Iraqi people resolve their political and humanitarian problems.

Ayatollah Mohammad Baqer al-Hakim, leader of Iraq's largest Shiite Muslim opposition, the Tehran-based Supreme Assembly of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SAIRI), announced Monday that the organization will boycott a US-sponsored Iraqi opposition assembly on the country's postwar reconstruction to be held on Tuesday, in protest against foreign control over Iraq.

The United States, Britain, Australia and Poland are expected to attend the meeting in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah.

In the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, all the 2,000 Iraqi police officers returned to work on Monday and hundreds of them enforced patrol along with the US forces all over the city to restore order and security. In addition, medical workers and electricians were responding to a recruitment call to bring life back to normal in the capital, where street traffic began to increase and many shops resumed business.

Humanitarian aid was moving into Baghdad. Local residents were urged to keep away from main roads and carry no weapons so as to allow US troops to distribute food, medicine and drinking water.

Hundreds of Baghdad residents staged an anti-looting protest, chanting slogans such as "Down With Bush" to express their anger at Baghdad turning into a city of crime following the US occupation last week.

Widespread looting has emptied museums, government buildings, banks, hospitals, universities, public libraries, market centers and foreign missions in the city amid chaos and anarchy since the arrival of Americans.

A total of 170,000 pieces of artifacts, which are evidence of early human civilizations, were reported to have been looted or destroyed in Iraqi museums over the past days. A representative of the UN specialized agency on cultural matters, UNESCO, said Monday the agency will begin assessment work "as soon as it is in a position to get to inside Iraq."

Powell on Monday pledged in a statement that the United States will take measures to protect Iraqi antiques and repair those damaged. He also said his country would work with UNESCO, the EU and the International Criminal Police Organization to prevent smuggling of the looted antiques out of Iraq.

In an initial estimate of the effect of the Iraq war on Arab economies, the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia said some 2 million people in the region may lose jobs due to an economic recession in the aftermath of the war.

The economic losses may hit some 400 billion US dollars, according to the commission.

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