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Sarkozy asks Syria to help resolve Iran nuclear crisis
By News Agencies
Tags: Iran, Israel, Assad, Syria

PARIS - French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Saturday asked Syrian President Bashar Assad to help resolve the crisis over Iran's nuclear program by persuading Tehran to cooperate with the international community.

Syria and Iran have good relations, but Assad expressed doubt that his intervention could help.

At a joint news conference following a meeting between the two leaders in Paris on Saturday, Sarkozy said he had asked Assad to convince Iran to show proof of its intentions.
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The international community has asked Tehran to stop enriching uranium, which can be used to make nuclear weapons. The United Nations has imposed sanctions on Tehran for failing to stop. But Iran insists its nuclear program is for civilian, peaceful use.

The West most recently offered a package of incentives to persuade Iran to comply.

Assad said that we will transmit the request from France to Tehran. However, he reiterated the Syrian position: that Iran has no intention of developing nuclear arms.

"I was very frank [with Sarkozy]," Assad said at the news conference a day before a one-day summit of 43 European and Mediterranean nations, adding that "we cannot talk about something that we know nothing about."

"What interests us," Assad went on to say, "is to find a political solution. ... We want to see the Middle East region free of all arms of mass destruction."

The Syrian president also addressed the indirect peace talks underway between his country and Israel, saying that he did not expect direct talks to begin until U.S. President George W. Bush leaves office next January.

Assad said he wanted France to play a role in any eventual face-to-face talks with Israel, but added it was essential for the United States to also be present.

"Quite frankly, this American administration is not interested in the peace process, so the question [of direct talks] won't arise before the arrival of a new American administration," Assad told the news conference.

Syria launched indirect peace talks with Israel this year under Turkish mediation over the return of the Golan Heights captured by Israel in 1967.

The last direct talks between Israel and Syria under U.S. sponsorship broke down eight years ago and Washington has been reluctant to re-engage with Damascus because of its role in Lebanon and close ties with Iran.

U.S. State Department spokesman Rob McInturff said on Saturday it was not ready to resume full contacts with Syria.

"We, along with the international community, are awaiting a signal that the Syrians are truly ready to renounce their sponsorship of terrorism and do more to end the flow of foreign fighters to Iraq, expel the leadership of Palestinian terrorist groups from Syria and human rights violations," he said.

Meanwhile Saturday, the leaders of Syria and Lebanon agreed to normalize their fraught relations on the eve of the Union Mediterranean summit.

Assad, basking in a diplomatic rehabilitation in Europe three years after he was frozen out over the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, confirmed that the two countries planned to open embassies in each other's capital for the first time.

Speaking alongside Sarkozy and Lebanese President Michel Suleiman, Assad said "we can say that Lebanon has moved from being a zone of turbulence, a war zone, to a more pacified zone when the Lebanese, and only the Lebanese, have the right to determine their own future."

Sarkozy called Assad's announcement of diplomatic relations with Beirut "absolutely historic" and a great step forward for Lebanon, a former French protectorate, but he acknowledged that some legal issues remained to be resolved.

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      1.   IN ESSENCE ASSAD IS SAYING;US NOT INTERESTED BECAUSE ASSAD HAS.. 00:02  |  glenna 01/01/08
      2.   Syria not interested in peace either, just in Lebanon 00:39  |  Tulip 01/01/08
      3.   THE ONLY THING HE IS INTERESTED IN ASSAD HAS ALREADY STATED:GOLAN 00:27  |  glenna 01/01/08
      4.   EU-Mediterranean Summit Is A Sarkosy Agenda & Not A News Agency 00:28  |  Joseph.E 01/01/08
      5.   Peace with Syria 00:03  |  Great White North 01/01/08
      6.   SARKOZY HAVING A GOOD TIME.. 00:53  |  Andreas 01/01/08
      7.   Syria help resolve Irainian nuclear crises 00:57  |  Woody 01/01/08
      8.   Syria wants Golan. Period. 00:06  |  Stephen. 01/01/08
      9.   Syria help resolve Irainian nuclear crises 00:16  |  Woody 01/01/08
      10.   There is no "Iran nuclear crises" 00:18  |  Tom Clark 01/01/08
      11.   no kidding 00:32  |  Harry 01/01/08
      12.   To Andreas(6) from Norway 00:33  |  Magnus K. 01/01/08
      13.   Syria a vassal of Iran has no influence on its boss. 00:11  |  Jean Van Daem 01/01/08
      14.   Nuclear Crises 00:33  |  Woody 01/01/08
      15.   The nuclear crisis of Woody 00:31  |  Tulip 01/01/08
      16.   When seeing Assad I always wonder why a person 00:42  |  Jew- and Bookburner 01/01/08
      17.   Keep the Golan, Give Assad Iran 00:31  |  Murray the Mongoose 01/01/08
      18.   Woody Nuclear crisis? 00:30  |  American in NY 01/01/08
      19.   ASKING ASSAD TO HELP RESOLVE NUKE CRISIS IS LIKE SAYING FOR HIM 00:14  |  glenna 01/01/08
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