Syria wants better ties with the United States, but not if this means submitting to endless demands from Washington, rather than working together for regional stability, its foreign minister said today.
Syria has faced US pressure and sanctions since it opposed the US-led war on Iraq in 2003, raising fears among some Arabs that Washington's real aim is "regime change" in Damascus.
"Pressures create difficulties for people. They change development plans and induce backwardness in some economic areas ... but they cannot break the will of people," Foreign Minister Farouq al-Shara told Syrian journalists in a briefing.
Bemoaning Washington's failure to respond to Syrian calls for dialogue, he said: "What can Syria do? I tell you frankly that I liked a statement by Iran's new president when he said we are not in dire need of relations with the United States."
Shara said that while his country could sympathise with the stance of Iranian President-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, it would respond positively to any overture from Washington.
"If it wants dialogue, we have proposed dialogue. If it wants Iraq's stability, we are for the stability of Iraq."
The United States accuses Syria of not doing enough to stop militants from crossing its border into Iraq to fight US forces and of supporting anti-Israeli militant groups.
Syria, which has closed the offices of several Palestinian militant factions in Damascus, says it is doing its utmost to prevent insurgents flowing into Iraq. It also heeded US and international calls to withdraw its troops from Lebanon in April, ending a 29-year military presence in its neighbour.
"If US policy is based on the phrase 'not enough', then all we do is not enough," Shara complained, arguing that hardliners in the US administration had blinded it to seeing the value of Syria's role in many areas of shared interest.
Shara also said Damascus wants "very strong" ties with France but asked Paris to reconsider accusations about Syrian intelligence presence in Lebanon. Syria insists that it has pulled out all its troops and spies from its tiny neighbour.