GopPiG Chimp_junta Needs A New War! Iraq Is a Disaster

US rejects Assad’s concessions and steps up threats against Syria

By Patrick Martin
7 March 2005

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The Bush administration flatly rejected an offer by Syrian President Bashir Assad to carry out a limited withdrawal of Syrian forces in Lebanon, stepping up its campaign to isolate the Syrian regime and create the conditions for imperialist military intervention in both Arab countries.

Assad announced a phased withdrawal of Syrian troops to positions along the Lebanon-Syria border, to be conducted over the next several months. He was responding to a rising campaign of diplomatic and economic pressure triggered by the United States and France, and endorsed by Germany as well as the two principal patrons of Damascus, Russia and Saudi Arabia.

The response in Washington was harsh and negative. A White House spokeswoman condemned Assad’s “half measures,” declaring they were “not enough.” Syria must withdraw all its military forces and intelligence agents “completely and immediately,” she said.

In his Saturday radio address, taped Friday and broadcast two hours before Assad’s withdrawal plan was unveiled, Bush preemptively rejected the offer. Citing the collaboration of France and the US, Bush said the world was “speaking with one voice to ensure that democracy and freedom are given a chance to flourish in Lebanon.”

In language ominously reminiscent of the propaganda campaign before the US invasion of Iraq, Bush cited the UN Security Council resolution adopted last fall, which he said required that “all foreign forces be withdrawn, and that free and fair elections be conducted without foreign influence.”

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