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Syria accuses US of interfering in Lebanon

* Says UN resolution was to ‘confiscate’ the rights of Lebanese people
* Syria accuses Israel of state terrorism ‘in broad daylight’

DAMASCUS: Damascus has accused the United States of interfering in the affairs of Lebanon and Syria, accusing Washington of bringing undue pressure to force a UN resolution last week on foreign influence in Lebanon.

In comments reported by state media on Tuesday, Defence Minister Hasan Turkmani accused Washington of “political escalation to interfere in the internal affairs of Syria and Lebanon under frail pretexts”. Turkmani, whose country has around 17,000 troops in Lebanon, slammed Washington’s role in pushing through last week’s UN resolution that called for the withdrawal of foreign troops from Lebanon. The resolution also warned against foreign interference in Lebanon’s presidential elections. In a speech at a cadets’ graduation ceremony, Turkmani said the resolution was a US attempt to “confiscate” the authority of the Lebanese people and parliament “as if the United States is more keen than the Lebanese on their country and interests”.

Defying the UN, Lebanon’s parliament voted last Friday to extend the term of Syrian-backed President Emile Lahoud.

On Sunday, Lahoud reaffirmed that Beirut would continue to work closely with Damascus after the extension of his term, which Washington says was orchestrated by Damascus. Traditionally tense ties between Syria and the United States have been further strained since the U.S-led war in Iraq.

Turkmani suggested a link between the US “intervention” attempts and Israeli threats to strike targets in Syria for alleged complicity in bus bombings that killed 16 people in southern Israel last Tuesday.

“These threats coincided with US political escalation,” he said of the warnings that have raised the spectre of an air raid similar to the one carried out deep inside Syria last October.

Syria accuses Israel: Syria on Tuesday accused Israel of practising state terrorism “in broad daylight”, adding that it was opposed to any operation that targeted civilians.

During a press conference with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, Foreign Minister Faruq al-Shara said he was “surprised that Israel had expressed doubts” on Syria’s position on terrorism.

“Syria published a statement strongly denouncing the terrorist act carried out in Russia,” he said, referring to the recent hostage crisis in the North Ossetian town of Beslan in which hundreds of children and adults died.

The declarations come after Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said on Tuesday that Syria backed “terrorism” and the Jewish state could only consider peace talks with Damascus if this policy changed.

“Syria is a state that patronizes terrorism. Headquarters of radical organizations in Syria are still open for business and their training camps still up and running,” Shalom told Israel public radio. agencies

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