03 May 2004	Monday	12 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1425

DAMASCUS, May 2: The US occupying force in Iraq has not liberated the country and has failed to bring the promised peace and democracy, Syrian President Bashar Al Assad said in an interview aired Saturday by an Arabic television channel.

The United States "has not liberated Iraq, nor installed democracy, nor improved the standard of living in the country. It is certainly one (an occupation). Even they say that. They have failed in Iraq that's for sure," said President Assad in a wide ranging interview lasting around 90 minutes, extracts of which had been aired on Wednesday.

The US may slap sanctions on Syria "very soon" under a law meant to punish Damascus for allegedly supporting terrorism and seeking unconventional weapons, the White House warned Friday. In comments unlikely to deter Washington from such action, Assad said that attacks targeting US-led occupation forces in Iraq amounted to "resistance".

"What happened at the popular level (in Iraq) confers legitimacy on the resistance and confirms that most of what is happening amounts to resistance," he told Al Jazeera news channel.

"Some of the actions kill civilians, and the Iraqis too don't approve of those. I distinguish (between attacks on military and civilian targets)," he added. "Is it possible that all those, the hundreds of thousands, the millions, resisting the occupation - in various ways, not necessarily military resistance only - are (affiliated to) Al Qaeda ... or are all supporters of the (deposed) regime of Saddam Hussein?" President Assad asked.

He said that dialogue with Washington was continuing "but that doesn't mean that relations are good... There are elements at the heart of the American administration who refuse dialogue while others judge it important".

The Syrian leader berated Israel over its policy of assassinations, and reiterated his country's support for Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat "despite major political differences".

Assad side-stepped a question on Syria's role in the recent rapprochement between Arafat and Palestinian opposition movements based in Damascus. Questioned on Israel's threat to eliminate the head of the Palestinian Islamist Hamas movement branch in Damascus, President Assad said "all aggression will be treated as such". -APP