DAMASCUS, Oct 22: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad harshly criticized US policies on both the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Iraq, in talks here on Tuesday with Washington’s special envoy for the Middle East.

“The United States does not seem able to understand events in the Middle East, and that is dangerous,” Assad bluntly told William Burns, the assistant secretary of state for Near East affairs, Syrian state radio reported.

Accusing Washington of bias towards Israel, Assad said: “This means that US policy in the Middle East is not founded on the veracity of events but rather on biased sources, particularly Israeli.”

The president spoke his mind, taking to task the United States for what he considered its hollow words and inaction in the Middle East.

Assad urged Burns to “define the practical means and a timetable for peace” in the Middle East, warning that the US-evoked Palestinian state would be “a state without people” unless Washington stopped Israel’s “war of extermination waged by (Israeli Prime Minister) Ariel Sharon against the Palestinians”.

Burns was in Damascus on the fourth leg of a regional tour, which will also take him to Israel and the Palestinian territories, aimed at mustering support for a US-led international initiative to revive the moribund peace process.

“US policies towards the Arabs and the Muslims will only reap wrath and increasing problems,” Assad warned, before cautioning Burns on the dire consequences of a possible US strike on Iraq.

“The US administration must act with wisdom because it does not know what will be the repercussions in the Middle East of an attack,” Assad said.

“To plunge into the moving sands of Iraq will be more difficult for the United States than those of Afghanistan. Nobody will be able to stop such a dangerous (attack) nor control its outcome,” warned Assad.

Syria, which shares a border with Iraq, fears for its future in the event of a US attack toppling President Saddam Hussein’s regime in neighboring Iraq.

It fears the collapse of the Baghdad leadership could lead to the emergence of a Kurdish state in the north of Iraq that would incite Syria’s own sizeable Kurdish minority.

Burns said the United States was aware of the concerns of Iraq’s neighbours in case of US military action.

The United States has “made it clear about its commitment to the territorial integrity of Iraq and to its stability,” the US envoy told a press conference after the meeting with Assad.

But “war is not imminent or unavoidable. President Bush has made it clear. We and our partners in the international community want to see full Iraqi compliance,” Burns added.

A UN Security Council resolution on Iraqi disarmament sought by Washington and London is aimed at “sending as strong as possible an international message to the Iraqi regime to must comply fully,” he said.

Burns also condemned a Palestinian suicide attack which killed 14 passengers of an Israeli bus on Monday, noting that the group which claimed it had offices in Damascus.

But Syrian radio said Assad told Burns, who later travelled to Beirut, that “condemning Palestinian organisations is a waste of time”.

The Syrian president also stressed that the US must act to put an end to Israeli occupation and Jewish settlement construction in the Palestinian territories.—AFP