CAIRO, Nov 24: Syrian Foreign Minister Faruq al-Shara roundly rejected US pressure to shut down the Damascus office of Islamic Jihad, saying the Palestinian militant group did not use it as a base for planning attacks, in an interview to appear this week.

“The Islamic Jihad office in Damascus is uniquely an information bureau and those who work there have no links to military activities or planning operations,” Shara told the weekly Al-Osbou newspaper.

In the interview, a copy of which was obtained by AFP, Shara underlined that “those who are on Syrian territory, far from the terrain, cannot plan operations that take place in Palestinian territory.”

The US State Department said Tuesday it would keep up pressure on Syria to close down the office, a few days after the militant group claimed responsibility for an ambush in the West Bank town of Hebron that killed 12 Israeli security personnel.

The message was conveyed to Syrian leaders through US ambassador to Syria Theodore Qattouf.

“We can only accept the American request on one condition: that Palestinian refugees return to Palestine ... in accordance with (UN General Assembly) Resolution 194,” Shara added.

Following the attack in Hebron, US Secretary of State Colin Powell took aim at Damascus, saying “it is impossible to understand how any country that claims a genuine commitment to peace can harbor such groups.”

The State Department also reiterated that Syria has been designated a “state sponsor of terrorism” by the United States for its support to militant anti-Israeli groups.

But it would not say whether Washington had threatened punitive measures against Damascus if it failed to close the Islamic Jihad office.

The Syrian foreign ministry later hit back, saying US support for Israel showed peace in the Middle East was not a priority for Washington.

Islamic Jihad and the larger Gaza City-based Hamas movement are responsible for many anti-Israeli attacks since the outbreak of the Palestinian uprising in September 2000.

He also dismissed a “roadmap” to Middle East peace being worked on by top US, UN, EU and Russian officials as an “illusion”.

“In our opinion there is no roadmap ... It is an illusion that certain Arab states believe in. The roadmap exists only in the media, in reality it is only an attempt to cover up for the current void,” he said.

Senior world officials agreed in mid-September on the plan, which sets out to create a Palestinian state by 2005, and have said they will finalize it in December.

While it has been accepted in principle by the Palestinians and moderate Arab states Israel’s right-wing caretaker government has said it is “not on the agenda”.—AFP