Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

DATE=05/07/03

TYPE=U-S OPINION ROUNDUP

TITLE=POWELL VISITS SYRIA

NUMBER=6-12919

BYLINE=ANDREW GUTHRIE

DATELINE=WASHINGTON

EDITOR=ASSIGNMENTS

TELEPHONE=619-3335

CONTENT=

INTRO: The American press is generally pleased with the recent announcement Damascus was closing offices of some militant anti-Israeli groups that followed a visit by U-S Secretary of State Colin Powell to Syria.

U-S papers feel that now that Iraq has fallen, Syria may be rethinking its relations with both the United States and its Middle Eastern neighbors. We get a sampling of opinion from V-O-A's ___________ in this U-S Opinion Roundup.

TEXT: In his visit, Mr. Powell said that "a new strategic situation" had emerged with the fall of Saddam Hussein's government. According to the New York Times correspondent on the trip, "It appeared that the administration's message had already been heard in Syria" and he went on to call the office closings "a breakthrough in dealing with Syria" which has had a tumultuous recent relationship with Washington.

In the Pacific Northwest, The Seattle [Washington] Post-Intelligencer is pleased with the results.

VOICE: Whatever the outcome of diplomacy with Syria, few Americans . could doubt the value of Secretary of State... Powell's trip . In impressive interviews on [television] . the secretary laid out a clear view of diplomacy focused on results, [spelling] out . conditions for better relations: closure of terrorist group offices; return of any fleeing Iraqi leaders; and abandonment of . biological and chemical weapons programs.

TEXT: The New York Post likes what it describes as Secretary Powell's "stern message." to the Syrian leadership.

VOICE: This isn't the first time Washington has had tough talk for the terrorist-sponsoring Syrians. But now things are different. The U-S military victory in Iraq - - following last year's ouster of Afghanistan's pro-terrorist Taliban government- - has changed everything. Has [Syrian President Bashar] Assad gotten the message?

[Secretary] Powell says the youthful Syrian leader told him he'd shut down the Damascus offices of several Palestinian terrorist groups. It turns out, however, that he had not. In fact, opening and closing terrorist offices is a ploy that Assad has often used to placate the West. . Continued Syrian sponsorship of terror must have consequences.

TEXT: In New England, The Boston Globe suggests there is still some friction with the Bush administration on exactly how to deal with Damascus.

VOICE: The . truth is that Washington is demanding, rightly, that Syria cease doing certain things and start doing other things, and the United States can exert tremendous pressure on the inexperienced [President] Assad. [Secretary] Powell and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld appeared on [television] . Sunday [5-4] to justify [Mr.] Powell's trip . Although the two secretaries conveyed the message that there was no discord between them on policy toward Syria . they did not spell out how vulnerable Syria is to American pressure. They should have.

TEXT: Lastly, on New York's Long Island, Newsday feels that cooperation by Syria against the terrorists would be a "Mideast Breakthrough."

VOICE: In complying with U-S demands . [to close offices of] Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine . Syria would be implicitly accepting for the first time the designation of the three groups as terror organizations. Of course, the three groups could simply move their headquarters across the border into southern Lebanon under the protection of yet another anti-Israel terror group, Hezbollah.

Whether Syria will comply depends on unpredictable factors, among them [President] Assad's leadership strength, Arab reactions and the lure of economic help for Syria's battered economy. But if it does, even in part, Washington will have opened an important new diplomatic beachhead in the Mideast.

TEXT: On that optimistic assessment from Newsday we conclude this editorial sampling of changing U-S Syrian relations.

NEB/ANG/MAR