The United States has repeated its warning to Syria over an alleged transfer of ballistic missiles to Lebanon's Hezbollah, boasting
all options are on the table.
Speaking to a congressional committee on Wednesday, Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman said that
Washington has alarmed Damascus officials several times since late February against sending arms to the Lebanese resistance
movement.
Israel's President Shimon Peres accused Syria earlier in the week of providing Hezbollah with Scud
missiles capable of reaching a far longer range and carrying a much larger warhead than the rockets the movement had possessed
earlier.
Feltman would not confirm the allegations of Syrian arms shipments to Lebanon, but said Washington would have "really, really
serious concern" if Syria delivered such high-grade weapons to Hezbollah.
"If these reports turn out to be true, we're going to have to review the full range of tools that are available to us in order to
make Syria reverse what would be an incendiary, provocative action," Feltman said. "I expect that all options are going to be on
the table looking at this."
US officials summoned Syria's ambassador on February 26, citing intelligence that Syria was passing increasingly sophisticated
ballistic weapons to Hezbollah, Feltman said, adding similar warnings were passed to Syrian diplomats on March 1, March 10 and
March 19.
A Syrian diplomat was also summoned to the State Department on Tuesday, over the latest accusations made by the Israeli
president.
Both Syria and Hezbollah have strongly denied the charges, saying Israel could be using the
accusation as an excuse to start another war in the region.
Ahmed Salkini, a spokesman for Syrian embassy in Washington, described the accusation of missile transfers as part of a
disinformation campaign by Israel, which aims at diverting the world's attention from eviction of Palestinians, destruction of
their homes, and expansion of Israeli settlements.
Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri also ridiculed allegations over Hezbollah's arsenal, likening them to false US claims about
Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, which Washington used as a pretext to invade the country in 2003.
US renews Syria threats over alleged Scuds to Hezbollah
Permalink > Middle East > Politics > slashnews.co.uk > 22 Apr 2010 > 2,227 characters > ref:
6055

