|
||||||||
  |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Assad arrives in UK for Iraq talks
LONDON, England -- Syrian president Bashar Assad has arrived in Britain for talks with Prime Minister Tony Blair with Iraq topping the agenda. Assad will hold talks with the UK Prime Minister on Monday in what is the first official visit to Britain by a Syrian leader. In one of the defining moments of the West's war against terrorism, Blair received an embarrassing dressing down over the Afghan conflict from the Syrian leader at a joint news conference when he visited the capital Damascus last year. A similar joint press conference between Blair and Assad is planned at No. 10 Downing Street before the Syrian president is given an audience with Queen Elizabeth II. Assad was due to arrive in London on Sunday, but speaking ahead of the visit, British officials pointedly said they would deliver "home truths... in private rather than public." But just days before his arrival, the Syrian president publicly warned war with Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein would create "fertile soil for terrorism" across the Middle East. While Syria backed the U.S.-UK resolution on Iraqi disarmament adopted by the United Nations, the Arab country sees it as a method of avoiding U.S. strikes on Iraq. "The consequences of war on Iraq are not going to be contained within Iraq. The entire region will enter into the unknown," Assad said in an interview with The Times of London newspaper. "We are a better judge of this because we live in the region. I think the bigger problem is that any country should interfere in the internal affairs of another country." Britain is keen for Syria to rein in the extremist pro-Palestinian groups operating in Damascus, a situation that has earned it a place on the U.S. terror list. An attack on Israel by one of these groups during the visit would be highly embarrassing for British officials. But Assad also defended Palestinian suicide bombings as "a reaction to the terrorism practiced by Ariel Sharon against the civilian Palestinian people". Syrian diplomatic sources signalled no softening in that stance during their leader's visit. "I will tell you why Syria is looked at as intransigent, as a hard-line country, it is because it tries to do things properly," a source told the UK's Press Association. British diplomats hope that engagement with the Damascus regime will encourage modernisation within Syria and maintain a dialogue on the Middle East. Officials denied the press conference "rematch" was an unnecessary gamble. "We do not pretend to agree on every issue, but there is much we can, and do, achieve together. A candid dialogue is better than no dialogue at all," a Foreign Office source told PA. "No visit is going to be risk-free. The audience with the queen is a courtesy that is offered to most heads of state. "We think Syria could do a lot more to exert its influence to reform these people. We would much prefer to see this offices not enjoy the hospitality of Damascus. "The perception is actually almost is important is the reality." Although Britain has concerns that Syria, like Iraq, may be developing chemical weapons, officials denied to PA that there were double standards in welcoming Assad to Downing Street. "There is no single template of how we treat countries of proliferation concern," one official said. "Each must be treated as its behaviour merits. Iraq is a unique case: it is the only country to have used weapons of mass destruction against its own people and its neighbours." Assad studied ophthalmology in London between 1992 and 1994 and last year married British-born Asma al-Akhras, a graduate of London's King's College and of Syrian descent. Their first child was born in London last December.
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
