US to Watch if Syria Takes Actions on Radical Groups: Powell

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, May 05, 2003

US to Watch if Syria Takes Actions on Radical Groups: Powell

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US Secretary of State Colin Powell warned Syria on Sunday that the United States will be watching closely to see if Damascus lives up to its promises to take action against radical Palestinian groups.

Speaking in a series of interviews on American television one day after his return from a trip to Beirut and Damascus, Powell said Syria knows what it has to do.

He said he welcomes the assurances that Syrian President Basharal-Assad made to him that Syria will close the offices of the groups that the United States considers to be terrorist organizations.

Speaking on ABC's "This Week," Powell said Assad "said he was taking action to close down these offices and that he would restrict their ability to communicate."

"It is not what he says, or what he said to me, or what he professes," he said. "It is what he actually does. So, it is performance that we will be looking at in the days and weeks and months ahead."

In a separate interview on NBC's "Meet the Press," Powell said the sites Assad promised to close include the Damascus offices of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Hamas and the Popular Front forthe Liberation of Palestine."

He said President Assad is under no illusions, and knows exactly what the United States is looking for -- an end to supportfor terrorism, cooperation in rebuilding neighboring Iraq and capturing leaders of the ousted regime.

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