[AL-AWDA-News] Syria warns if U.S. attacks (fwd)

[Clement Henry <cmhenry@mail.la.utexas.edu>]

Things seem to be heating up in real life on the Syrian and Lebanese
fronts...which just can't be excluded from our Arab Israeli politics...CH

Subject: [AL-AWDA-News] Syria warns if U.S. attacks

Syria warns 'gates of hell will open' if U.S. attacks
Leila Hatoum, Daily Star staff
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_ID=1&article_ID=19252&categ_id=2

BEIRUT, October 12, 2005 -

In the latest official Syrian comment on the increasing
pressure on Damascus, Premier Naji Otari said "all the
gates of hell will open on the U.S. if it attempts to
attack Syria." Otari was replying to a report this week in
Newsweek magazine revealing that Washington had debated
launching military strikes inside Syria against camps used
by insurgents operating in Iraq.

Citing unnamed government sources, the magazine reported
that U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had managed
to block the proposal during a meeting of senior U.S.
officials on October 1.

Speaking to reporters in Shanon, Ireland, on a four-nation
tour, Rice said: "I am not going to comment on internal
deliberations in the administration."

Otari also accused Lebanese officials of being unable to
make an independent decision, saying they were answerable
to the French and U.S. ambassadors to Lebanon.

Addressing his Lebanese counterpart Fouad Siniora, the
Syrian premier said: "Apparently Siniora forgot all of what
we have discussed when he visited Damascus after his recent
return from a visit to the U.S."

Siniora had held talks with several officials in Damascus
to resolve a border dispute between the two countries in
June.

Pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat reported yesterday Otari had
refused to answer repeated phone calls from Siniora on
Monday.

The paper quoted unidentified "informed Syrian sources in
Damascus" as saying the Assad regime believes Siniora has
reneged on promises he made to the Syrian president during
a visit on July 31.

The regime is particularly outraged over Siniora's
allegation in a recent interview with The Washington Post
that all of Lebanon is convinced that Syria engineered the
Hariri murder.

In other related media responses to the mounting pressure
on Damascus, Syrian daily Tishrin said in an editorial
yesterday that Washington is criticizing Syria to cover its
own policy failures in the Middle East.

Assistant U.S. Secretary of State David Welch had warned
the Assad regime Sunday that it was not heeding calls to
change its behavior in Iraq, Lebanon and the Palestinian
territories.

Welch has been touring the Middle East, meeting with
leaders in Egypt and Saudi Arabia. He is expected to hold
talks with Lebanese officials today.

"Barely a day passes without such accusations as if Syria
has become an excuse for the

U.S. faults in the region," the editorial said.

Separately, Detlev Mehlis, the German prosecutor heading
the international investigation into Hariri's murder, was
expected to reach Beirut late last night from Larnaca,
where he is placing the final touches on his report
according to sources close to the Lebanese judiciary.

Mehlis moved his base of operations to the Cypriot port
town early in the day citing security concerns.

But the source said: "Some experts from Mehlis' team are
still in Lebanon, and Mehlis will join them for further
discussions with Lebanese officials before presenting his
report."

The nature of Mehlis' report has spurred mounting
speculations, fears and an ongoing public row between
Lebanese and Syrian officials.

In local developments, Lebanese Justice Minister Charles
Rizk held several meetings with various ambassadors to
Lebanon in which he tried to gather support for an
extension of the international investigation's term to
allow it to provide support for the Lebanese judiciary.

The UN team's mandate is set to expire on October 25. UN
chief Kofi Annan has refused an oral request from Siniora
made last week, saying he would only consider an official
written request from the government.

In the meantime, the Center to Protect Journalists in New
York has presented a letter to Annan asking him to include
the attacks Lebanese journalists May Chidiac and Samir
Qassir in Mehlis' mission.

"The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on the
UN Security Council to expand its probe into the murder of
former Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri to include the
alarming attacks against Lebanese journalists," the letter
said.

- With Agencies and additional reporting by Majdoline Hatoum