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Rice Says Bush is not Taking Military Option Against Syria Off the Table

The United States, France and Britain are lobbying for two new Security Council resolutions next week, squarely condemning the Assad regime of still meddling in Lebanon's domestic affairs and clamping stricter international sanctions against Syria, Agency dispatches from Washington and New York said Thursday.
The three big powers are acting on the assumption that chief U.N. investigator Detlev Mehlis would implicate Syria in his report about the probe he led into ex-premier Rafik Hariri's assassination over the past 10 weeks.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in Washington on Wednesday that the Bush administration was taking "new diplomatic steps" against Syria and Iran over Iraq and Lebanon.

Rice said the U.S. was using diplomacy to urge a change in the behavior of Syria and Iran. But she stopped short of ruling out military force. "I'm not going to get into what the president's options might be," Rice said. "I don't think the president ever takes any of his options off the table concerning anything to do with military force."

As Rice spoke, a woman in the second row of spectators shouted "Stop the killing in Iraq." A police officer motioned her out of the room.

"There are discussions about what is the appropriate mechanism to address Syrian behavior within the U.N. context," said a senior State Department official after Rice's Senate testimony.

At the White House, spokesman Scott McClellan declined to answer when asked whether Bush had signed any orders enabling U.S. forces to cross Iraq's border into Syria to engage foes who may be looking to enter Iraq.

"Whether or not he had or not, I would not get into talking about that, because it's classified in nature," he told reporters.

McClellan also warned that Syria was "trending in the wrong direction from the rest of the Middle East" and accused Damascus of allowing extremists to cross into Iraq and of backing terrorist groups that seek to undermine the Middle East peace process.

He also said Washington eagerly awaited two reports: One on a U.N. probe into the murder of Rafik Hariri and another on Syrian compliance with a U.N. resolution demanding Syria withdraw completely from Lebanon.(AP-AFP-Naharnet)

Beirut, 20 Oct 05, 09:39


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