- Pentagon adviser Richard Perle said the recent Israeli
attack in Syria was long overdue and expected US military action against
Damascus.
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- Perle, a close adviser to US President George Bush and
Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, was speaking on Tuesday at a Jerusalem
conference of conservatives from the United States and Israel.
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- "I was happy to see that Israel has now taken a
similar step in responding to acts of terror that originate in Lebanese
territory by going to the rulers of Lebanon in Damascus," said Perle,
a Washington hawk.
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- Israel launched an attack on Syria earlier this month,
on what it claimed was a training camp for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad
group.
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- The resistance group strongly denied it maintained training
camps outside the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, saying Israel attacked
a civilian area.
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- It was Israel's first deep attack in Syria since the
1967 Arab-Israeli war.
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- Everything's possible
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- Perle said he hoped the air strike reflected a new Israeli
policy similar to the Bush doctrine.
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- "We have problems with the Syrians who continue
to support terrorism. We have to find a way to get them to stop,"
Perle was quoted as saying.
-
- Asked whether this would include US military action against
Damascus, he said: "Everythingís possible."
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- Perle said it would not be difficult to commit forces
to Syria despite heavy US troop commitments to Iraq, Afghanistan and the
Korean peninsula, along with a continued presence in areas such as the
Balkans and Liberia.
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- "Syria is militarily very weak," he said.
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- Perle stepped down from his position as chair of the
Pentagon's Defence Policy Board this spring, following allegations that
he had used his position with the Pentagon to further business deals in
Singapore and the United States. He is still a member of the board.
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- Perle said that the Bush administration's "road
map" aimed at ending the Palestinian and Israel conflict had failed.
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- © 2003 Aljazeera.Net
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- http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/58B2B774-DD77-4A0B-BA5F-1F99B8EE98F1.htm
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