Bush demands Syria to pull out from Lebanon

2/17/2005 6:00:00 PM GMT

The U.S. President George W. Bush used the outrage stirred by the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri to intensify the pressures on Syria, demanding it to withdraw its forces from Lebanon and saying that he will seek the backing of European and NATO leaders to put more pressures on Damascus.

"Syria is out of step with the progress being made in the greater Middle East," Bush told a press conference.

Tensions between the U.S. and Syria intensified since former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, who supported the withdrawal of Syrian forces from Lebanon, was killed in a bomb explosion in Beirut on Monday.

The U.S. used the outrage stirred by the assassination to intensify the pressures it was already putting on the Syrian government to withdraw its troops from Lebanon.

However, Bush said that it was premature to hold Syria accountable for Hariri’s death.

The American President also said that he is expecting Syria to implement the UN Security Council 1559, which demands the withdrawal of Syrian forces from its neighbor and said that "we expect them to help free and fair elections to take place in Lebanon."

The President is expected to travel to Brussels next week to meet European and NATO leaders. He said that he would use the meeting to rally pressure against Syria.

"I look forward to working with my European friends on my upcoming trip to talk about how we can work together to convince the Syrians to make rational decisions," he said.

The U.S. imposed some trade sanctions against Syria in May. Other measures being considered include restrictions to isolate Syrian banks and ban U.S. financial institutions from dealing with them. Bush may also freeze the assets of Syrian officials.

The White House is also considering whether U.S. forces could cross Syria’s border from Iraq in "hot pursuit" of rebels, sources close to the discussions said.

Bush also said that Damascus must make sure that its territory isn’t used by the Iraqi resistance and added that "and we expect them to find and turn over former Saddam regime supporters, send them back to Iraq."

“An increasing list of problems”

Earlier Thursday, the Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that the U.S. has “an increasing list of problems” with Damascus, one day after it formed a "common front” with Iran to meet international challenges and threats.

Rice told a Senate hearing that she recalled the U.S. ambassador to Syria, Margaret Scobey, for an "indeterminate" time as a "very strong signal" of the U.S. displeasure with Damascus following the apparent assassination of Hariri.

Rice also said: "We have been very clear that we don't know who is responsible for the bombing,"

"But the Syrians -- given their position in Lebanon, given their interference in Lebanese affairs, given the fact that their forces are there, given the terrorists that operate in southern Lebanon with Syrian forces in close proximity to them -- does put on the Syrians a special responsibility for the kind of destabilization there."

In response to the Syrian-Iranian “front”, the White House spokesman Scott McClellan said: "Their problem is not with the United States, it's with the international community. Both Syria and Iran... need to abide by the commitments they have made."

Syria strongly denied having any role in Beirut’s deadly attack that killed Hariri and stressed that its common front with Iran is not an alliance against the U.S. "We are not the enemies of the United States, and we do not want to be drawn into such an enmity," said Syria's ambassador in the U.S., Imad Moustapha.

He also dismissed the argument that Syrian forces could have stopped Hariri’s death. "Our troops are not in any major Lebanese city," he said. "Definitely not in Beirut. They have been out of Beirut for at least two years.

"You have 150,000 troops in Iraq and you can't stop acts of terrorism. We have 13,000 troops (in Lebanon)," he added.