EU to U.S.: 'Cool it' over Syria

April 15, 2003
By Gareth Harding

BRUSSELS, Belgium, (UPI) -- European Union foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg Monday urged Washington to tone down its confrontational rhetoric towards Syria as they attempted to carve out a role for the 15-member bloc in the post-war reconstruction of Iraq.

Asked about the increasingly bellicose U.S. warnings to Damascus since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime, German Foreign Minister Joshka Fischer replied: "We should concentrate on winning the peace and not get into a new confrontation."

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana added: "The region is going through a very difficult process and I think it would be better to make constructive statements to see if we can cool down the situation."

Even British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, who accused Syria of actively colluding with Saddam in recent months, sought to play down concerns that the victorious coalition partners have targeted the Middle East state.

"As far as 'Syria next on the list,' we made clear that it is not," Straw told reporters in Bahrain.

The European Union's warnings come after a weekend in which senior members of the Republican administration ratcheted up the rhetoric against President Bashar Assad's regime.

Asked whether Damascus harbored weapons of mass destruction, U.S. President George W. Bush told reporters in Washington: "We believe there are chemical weapons in Syria."

Meanwhile, in separate interviews, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell accused Iraq's neighbor of sponsoring terrorism and welcoming fleeing members of Saddam's toppled government.

"Now that the regime is gone in Baghdad, we hope that Syria will understand there is an opportunity for a better way for them if they would stop supporting terrorist activities and make sure they are not a source of weaponry of mass destruction ... for terrorist organizations or anyone else," said Powell.

Meeting for the first time since coalition forces seized Baghdad, EU foreign ministers attempted to put past divisions over Iraq behind them Monday ahead of a summit of European leaders in Athens, Greece, Wednesday and Thursday.

French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin, who has been a staunch opponent of the U.S.-led war in the Gulf, said: "It is useless to go back to what divided us ... let us turn to the future."

European governments are adamant that the United Nations should play a central role in the post-war reconstruction of Iraq, although some countries also favor a separate peacekeeping function for the EU.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan is set to attend the Athens get-together, which is due to formally endorse the membership applications of 10 mainly former communist states at a ceremony below the Acropolis.

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