28 September 2004	Tuesday	12 Shaban 1425

UNITED NATIONS, Sept 27: Syria on Monday charged that Israel prodded the United States into invading Iraq to sway attention from its actions in occupied Palestinian lands.

Addressing the UN General Assembly, Syrian Foreign Minister Farooq al Sharaa pointed out that Israel had built up a nuclear arsenal, expanded settlements on Palestinian lands, built a "racist segregation wall", transformed its army into "armed gangs bent on systematic killings and war crimes" and shunned the peace process "despite the hand extended in peace by the Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese".

Syria had earlier accused Israel of terrorism after a Hamas militant died in a car bombing in Damascus on Sunday. "The United Nations had been of little help in resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict, which was as old as the world body itself," Mr Sharaa noted.

Despite the adoption of over 600 resolutions on the subject, Israel "did not implement a single one of them, and continues to find protection inside and outside the United Nations", he said.