WASHINGTON, April 15: US Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Tuesday that the United States had no war plan to attack either Syria or Iran.
“We have concerns about Syria,” he said. “We also have concerns about some of the policies of Iran.
“But there is no list, there is no war plan right now to go attack someone else either for the purpose of overthrowing their leadership or for the purpose of imposing democratic values,” he added.
Although the United States has no plans to declare war on Syria, Mr Powell warned that the Bush Administration still had major worries about the Syrian regime.
“In recent weeks we have been concerned about the flow of individuals and materials across the Iraqi/Syrian border,” he said.
The United States, he said, would strongly protest Syria’s decision to shelter officials of the former Iraqi government.
“Syria has to realise that there is a new environment in the region now that Saddam’s regime has fallen. These officials must face the justice to be meted out by their countrymen,” said Mr Powell.
“We have concerns about Syria. We have let Syria know of our concerns. We also have concerns about some of the policies of Iran. We have made the Iranians fully aware of our concerns,” Mr Powell told reporters in Washington.
Talking to reporters at Washington’s Foreign Press Center, Mr Powell also acknowledged that the United Nations had to play a role in international affairs despite the United States rebuff to the world body on Iraq.
He said that although the United States and Britain went to war without UN approval, it does not minimize the role the United Nations had to play in world affairs, including in the reconstruction of Iraq.
“The UN cannot solve every problem that is brought before it. But the UN still remains relevant.”
Mr Powell also spoke of President Bush’s ‘Roadmap’ peace plan for the Middle East.
“We will release the ‘Roadmap’ as it was finalised last December and laid out by President Bush in his speech last June 24.”
