Syria's Assad: 'I am not Saddam Hussein'
Published: 3/6/2005
WASHINGTON - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, under pressure to
withdraw troops from Lebanon, insisted he should not be compared to
Saddam Hussein and that he wanted to cooperate with international
demands, according to an interview released Sunday.
Assad told Time magazine Syria has suffered most from the
assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri, whose
killing led to stepped up calls for Syria to pullout from neighboring
Lebanon.
When asked who had killed Hariri, Assad told the weekly: "The most
important question is, Who had the benefit of it?
"As president, I can't tell you this country or that. But who suffered
most from it? Syria. Syria was the biggest loser. The Lebanese,
definitely, they lost ... But Syria lost more."
At the end of the interview, which was conducted last week, Assad
said: "Please send this message: I am not Saddam Hussein. I want to
cooperate."
The Lebanese opposition has blamed the February 14 explosion that
killed Hariri on Beirut's pro-Syrian regime and Damascus. The
assassination led to calls by France and the United States for Syria
to withdraw its 14,000 troops from Lebanon.
The Lebanese opposition has also launched a campaign of massive public
protests that led to the downfall of the Syrian-backed government on
Monday.
In excerpts of the interview that had been released last week, Assad
said Syria would withdraw its troops from neighboring Lebanon in 'the
next few months.'
Time said the Syrian government later corrected Assad's comments,
saying the president was talking about compliance with the 1989 Taif
agreement, which calls for a Syrian pullback to Lebanon's eastern
Bekaa Valley but does not set a date for the full pullout.
Assad on Saturday announced that Syria would redeploy all its troops
to the Syrian border, but he did not set a timetable for a full
withdrawal.
Syria is to start redeploying its troops into the Bekaa Valley Monday,
Lebanon's outgoing Defense Minister Abdel Rahim Mrad said Sunday.
03/06/2005 14:58 GMT
AFP and Turkish Press
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