In The Days

• Source: IHT

NEW YORK: Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said Washington’s problem with Syria is not a lack of communication between the two governments, but Syria’s habit of dabbling in terrorist activities throughout the Middle East.

“The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.”
—Isa 17:1

At an event hosted by the New York City Asia Society, Burns said Washington’s isolation of Syria has put the country “in the deep freeze.”

“They’re not going to derive the benefits of a normal political or economic relationship with the Sunni Arab states, or with the EU states or with the U.S. as long as they continue to be caught in the nexus of terrorism, along with Iran, in supporting those major Middle East terrorist groups that have such a negative effect on Israel, the Palestinians and Lebanon,” he said Monday.

The U.S has had a problematic relationship with Damascus in recent years, with Washington accusing Syria of trying to undermine the Lebanese government of Prime Minister Fuad Saniora, which is dominated by opponents of Syria.

“What most of us are trying to do is look for solutions to the problems in the Middle East, and what Syria and Iran appear to be doing is looking to divide, and looking to create and instigate conflict,” Burns said.

Relations with Syria have worsened, he said, in part because Damascus “cannot kick the habit of intrusive involvement” in Lebanon. He pointed out that all of the victims of political assassinations in Lebanon over the last two years have been part of the anti-Syrian movement, including the slaying of Pierre Gemayel last week.

Gemayel was the sixth anti-Syrian figure killed in Lebanon in two years and was the first since Gibran Tueni, a prominent anti-Syrian newspaper editor and lawmaker who was killed in a car bomb in December 2005.

Damascus’ opponents in Lebanon have accused Syria of being behind previous assassinations, particularly that of Rafik Hariri, who was killed in a bombing in Beirut in February 2005, but Syria denies these claims.

Syria has denied having any involvement in Gemayel’s assassination and called the assassination “a despicable crime.”