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In a further climb down from hectic US rhetoric against Syria over the past two weeks, Secretary of State Colin Powell said Wednesday that he intends to visit Damascus to convey US concerns to Syrian leaders.
"I would expect to travel to Syria to have very candid and straightforward discussions with my foreign minister colleague (Farouk al-Sharaa) and with President Bashar Assad," Powell said inan interview with US media, without giving a specific date about his travel.
But he insisted that Syria expel officials of President Saddam Hussein's government who may flee to Syria and find refuge there.
"Syria does not want to be a safe haven in the aftermath of Operation Iraqi Freedom," he said.
Distancing himself from hawks in Washington, Powell said Tuesday that the United States has "no war plan" to attack Syria or Iran.
The international community was alarmed when the Bush administration escalated rhetoric against Damascus in the past few days, branding Syria as both a "terrorist state" and a country having weapons of mass destruction.
Talking about Iraq, Powell said he did not know whether President Saddam was dead or alive. But he stressed that the fact of matter is Saddam is no longer in power.
As to postwar Iraq, he said although the US will impose military rule in the aftermath of the war, it will move as quickly as it can to transfer the power to civilian authorities led by retired US lieutenant general Jay Garner and eventually to the Iraqi people themselves.
(Xinhua News Agency April 17, 2003)
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