Syria Refuted the Claim That the Leaders of the Iraqi Party BAATH Found Refuge in Syria

Syria has refuted the information to the effect that the top officials of the Iraqi party BAATH found refuge in the country. As permanent representative of Syria to the UN Mikhail Wahba said on Wednesday, "the U.S. administration should not have used fabrications of this kind with regard to Syria".

The USA earlier accused Syria of "producing weapons of mass destruction, supporting the Palestinian organisations, and giving refuge to the high-placed leaders of the Iraqi party BAATH".

In Wahba's opinion, "Israel is the source of this information, and the U.S. administration's attitude to these data should have been more careful". The Syrian diplomat also noted that a possibility "to move the war operaations from Iraq onto the country's territory" is not considered in Damascus, since "Syria is not an easy object for an attack".

The party of Arab socialist revival (BAATH) is considered to be all-Arab and is the ruling one both in Syria and Iraq. But differences exist between the Syrian and Iraqi wings of this party, and they do not maintain relations, the diplomat stressed.