Us to Prod Syrian Envoy On Terrorism, Nukes
A meeting with the Syrian ambassador scheduled for next week at the State Department will be the first such session since September and reflects Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clintons interest in talking directly with Syria and other countries at odds with the U.S., spokesman Gordon Duguid said.
“Its her belief that direct engagement with Syria will advance U.S. interests,” Duguid said.
Ambassador Imad Moustapha is to meet with Jeffrey D. Feltman, the acting assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, at Feltmans request, Duguid said. Clinton is not scheduled to participate.
“Our concerns include Syrias support to terrorist groups and networks, Syrias pursuit of nuclear and nonconventional weaponry, interference in Lebanon and a worsening human rights situation,” Duguid said.
The spokesman cited the International Atomic Energy Agencys report Thursday that samples taken from a Syrian site suspected of being a secretly built nuclear reactor have revealed new traces of processed uranium.
The Syria report noted the refusal by Damascus to allow agency inspectors to make follow-up visits to sites suspected of harboring a secret nuclear program. Syria denies hiding any such program.
The samples referred to in Thursdays report were taken during a visit in June to the Al Kibar site bombed in 2007 by Israeli jets. Minute traces of processed uranium from those samples were found late last year, and Thursdays report reflected additional traces found after additional analysis.
Syria has suggested the traces came from Israeli ordnance used to hit the site, but the report said the composition of the uranium made that unlikely. Israel has denied it was the source of the uranium.
U.S.-Syrian relations have long been tense, particularly since the U.S. ambassador was pulled out by the Bush administration in 2005 to protest Syrias suspected role in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Damascus denied involvement but in the uproar that followed was forced to withdraw its troops from Lebanon, ending a 29-year military presence.
The United States has also criticized Syria for supporting militant groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah and has accused Syria of not doing enough to prevent foreign fighters from crossing into Iraq. Syria has said it is doing all it can to safeguard its long, porous border.
With the Obama administrations blessing, Sen. John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is in the Middle East for visits to include a stop in Damascus.
During his stop in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, Kerry received through a U.N. official a letter addressed to President Barack Obama that officials said was from the Hamas movement that rules Gaza. The State Department said Kerry gave the letter to officials at the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem and that the White House had been notified.
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