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SYRIA: FOREIGN MINISTER CALLS FOR TIMETABLE ON U.S WITHDRAWAL November 20, 2006
Zainab Osman
(SomaliNet) Syria's foreign minister said Sunday that his government was prepared to help stabilize Iraq, and during a visit here he called for a timetable for the withdrawal of American troops, saying that it would help reduce the violence.
The trip by the minister, Walid al-Moallem, the first to Baghdad by a senior Syrian official since the ouster of Saddam Hussein, came on another day of widespread violence in Iraq. A suicide car bombing killed 17 people and wounded 49 in the southern Shiite city of Hilla, and the deputy health minister was kidnapped from his home in the capital.
In recent weeks, Iraqi and some Western officials have promoted the idea of actively involving Iraq's neighbors, especially Syria and Iran, in the search for a solution to the soaring sectarian violence in Iraq.
President Bush has refused to open high-level talks with Syria and Iran, countries he has accused of providing financing and weapons to militias in Iraq. But as his administration conducts a broad reassessment of its policy in Iraq, the president has come under increasing pressure to drop his opposition.
Mr. Moallem, the Syrian foreign minister, promised Sunday to cooperate with Iraqi officials in an effort to curb violence. Iraqi and American officials have accused Syria of not doing enough to prevent the flow of foreign fighters and munitions across the Syria-Iraq border.
In the Hilla car bombing, the deadliest attack of the day in Iraq, a man driving a minibus loaded with explosives pulled alongside a group of day laborers who had gathered on a street corner to wait for employment offers. As the men eagerly swarmed the van, the driver pushed a detonator and blew up the vehicle.