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Syrian officials Confused About What United States Administration Wants, Expects Syria to do
Aired April 15, 2003 - 13:04 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Well let's go to Syria now where our Sheila MacVicar is on the phone from Damascus. Sheila, are they scared there?
SHEILA MACVICAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The U.S. might wish them to be. They're conducting what from the Syrian's respect and certainly it sounds a lot like megaphone diplomacy, a lot of loud very messages, a lot of, sometimes, multiple messages that sometimes here is leaving the Syrian officials confused about what precisely the United States administration wants and what it expects Syria to do.
Now it's clear some of the things that we've heard from U.S. administration officials over the course of the last couple of days, this steady drum beat of pressure that has been placed on Syria over the last couple of days, it's clear that some of those things are meant as warning shots. To tell Syria, don't even think about doing this.
It seems fairly clear, not only from the denials of the Syrian government, but from discussing the question of whether or not there are Iraqi regime figures hiding here, Iraqi scientist, people of that nature that would of course be of interest to the U.S. government if they are in Syria. And what we are told is that the intelligence which suggests that in fact that may have happened is in pretty dubious value. What the Americans, the U.S. administration is signaling to the Syrians, is don't think about letting these people come in.
On other issues there is considerably more substance. And the bottom line here is is we keep hearing from British officials and sometimes from American officials as well is that there are serious questions, there are serious choices which Syria will have to make and will have to seriously engage with making a break with the past. And that seems to be the underlying position.
But there's a real risk, Miles, if the question here is a question of trying to scare the Syrians into doing something. Because the risk is it could backfire -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: Sheila, just quickly if you could give us a sense, for our viewer, of how complicated this Syria/Iraq relationship has been in the past. I know it doesn't lend itself to a quick answer.
MACVICAR: Well, briefly put, for more than 20 years, that relationship was in the deep freeze. There was no contact between Damascus and Baghdad. There was political enmity, bitter division. Only over the course of the last two years has there been any kind of a thaw in that relationship.
For Syria the carrot there was cheap Iraqi oil which they could on-sell at a world price. That gave them lots of money and market for cheap Syrian goods.
But, has there been a warm political relationship? The answer is no. Has there been (UNINTELLIGIBLE) -- when you talk to Syrians about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, they look at you and they say do you really think the Iraqis would trust us with those weapons?
So a long, bitter relationship that's never really healed -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: All right, Sheila MacVicar doing a good job condensing that into a few words. Thank you very much, joining us from Damascus.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Administration Wants, Expects Syria to do>
Aired April 15, 2003 - 13:04 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Well let's go to Syria now where our Sheila MacVicar is on the phone from Damascus. Sheila, are they scared there?
SHEILA MACVICAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The U.S. might wish them to be. They're conducting what from the Syrian's respect and certainly it sounds a lot like megaphone diplomacy, a lot of loud very messages, a lot of, sometimes, multiple messages that sometimes here is leaving the Syrian officials confused about what precisely the United States administration wants and what it expects Syria to do.
Now it's clear some of the things that we've heard from U.S. administration officials over the course of the last couple of days, this steady drum beat of pressure that has been placed on Syria over the last couple of days, it's clear that some of those things are meant as warning shots. To tell Syria, don't even think about doing this.
It seems fairly clear, not only from the denials of the Syrian government, but from discussing the question of whether or not there are Iraqi regime figures hiding here, Iraqi scientist, people of that nature that would of course be of interest to the U.S. government if they are in Syria. And what we are told is that the intelligence which suggests that in fact that may have happened is in pretty dubious value. What the Americans, the U.S. administration is signaling to the Syrians, is don't think about letting these people come in.
On other issues there is considerably more substance. And the bottom line here is is we keep hearing from British officials and sometimes from American officials as well is that there are serious questions, there are serious choices which Syria will have to make and will have to seriously engage with making a break with the past. And that seems to be the underlying position.
But there's a real risk, Miles, if the question here is a question of trying to scare the Syrians into doing something. Because the risk is it could backfire -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: Sheila, just quickly if you could give us a sense, for our viewer, of how complicated this Syria/Iraq relationship has been in the past. I know it doesn't lend itself to a quick answer.
MACVICAR: Well, briefly put, for more than 20 years, that relationship was in the deep freeze. There was no contact between Damascus and Baghdad. There was political enmity, bitter division. Only over the course of the last two years has there been any kind of a thaw in that relationship.
For Syria the carrot there was cheap Iraqi oil which they could on-sell at a world price. That gave them lots of money and market for cheap Syrian goods.
But, has there been a warm political relationship? The answer is no. Has there been (UNINTELLIGIBLE) -- when you talk to Syrians about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, they look at you and they say do you really think the Iraqis would trust us with those weapons?
So a long, bitter relationship that's never really healed -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: All right, Sheila MacVicar doing a good job condensing that into a few words. Thank you very much, joining us from Damascus.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Administration Wants, Expects Syria to do>
