Damascus, Syria – Syrian President Bashar Assad has renewed his call for better relations with the United States but at the same time criticized President Bush’s government, saying it does not care about peace.
In an interview with PBS’s “The Charlie Rose Show,” Assad also warned that civil war in Iraq would reverberate throughout Central Asia and the Middle East. The fear that sectarian strife in Iraq could spread to neighboring states is shared by many others in the Arab world.
“No one in the region wants bad relations with the United States. It is a great power and the most advanced country in the world,” Assad said in the interview broadcast Monday.
Assad indicated he felt that Washington had not given Syria enough credit for sharing intelligence on terrorists after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
He said Syria had helped Washington “because what happened in New York may happen in Syria.”
Relations soured when the U.S. accused Syria of supporting Hezbollah and Palestinian radical groups and allowing militants to cross into Iraq to fight the U.S.-led coalition there.
