Syria, Iran form ‘united front’

Syria and Iran formed an impromptu alliance yesterday by announcing a “united front” against economic sanctions by the United States and other “common threats.”

The move came amid growing pressure from Washington on the two militant Muslim nations, including a decision Tuesday to recall its ambassador to Syria after the assassination of a former Lebanese prime minister.

“In view of the special conditions faced by Syria, Iran will transfer its experience, especially concerning sanctions, to Syria,” Iranian Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref was quoted by wire services as saying.

“At this sensitive point, the two countries require a united front due to numerous challenges,” he said.

Mr. Aref spoke yesterday after a meeting with Syrian Prime Minister Mohammed Naji Otari in Tehran.

Syria maintains 15,000 troops in Lebanon despite repeated demands by the United States, United Nations and others to withdraw. Washington accuses Tehran of making an atomic bomb.

Both countries are blacklisted by Washington as state sponsors of terrorism and are subject to economic sanctions.

Washington has banned U.S. companies from doing business in Iran.

The Syria Accountability Act, which Congress passed in May, halted all U.S. exports to Syria except for food and medicine, as well as flights between the two countries.

Some on Capitol Hill have been pushing for even tougher sanctions on Syria, including the prohibition of all U.S. investment.

Mr. Otari said the future of the Iran-Syria relationship is “brilliant, despite the American threats.”

“The challenges we face in Syria and Iran require us to be in one front to confront all the challenges imposed by others,” he said.

The White House said the two countries’ problems are bigger than the United States.

“It is a fundamental misreading of the issue, because their problem is not with the United States ” it’s with the international community,” spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters traveling with President Bush to New Hampshire.

“Both Syria and Iran have international obligations, and they need to abide by the commitments they have made to the international community,” he said.

Syria’s ambassador to Washington, Imad Moustapha, said his country’s united front with Iran was not an anti-American alliance.

“Today, we do not want to form a front against anybody, particularly not against the United States,” Mr. Moustapha said on CNN.

“Syria is trying to engage constructively with the United States. … We are not the enemies of the United States, and we do not want to be drawn into such an enmity.”

Washington accuses Tehran of using the cover of a civilian nuclear program to produce fuel for atomic bombs.

The United States supports European negotiations with Iran but refuses direct talks with the Islamic republic.

In the case of Syria, the United States says Damascus provides safe haven to Palestinian militants, as well as to foreign terrorists taking part in the fighting in Iraq.

Washington also wants Syria’s troops in Lebanon to leave as soon as possible.

Although the United States stopped short of accusing Damascus in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in Beirut on Monday, it said the killing was the “proximate cause” of its recall of U.S. Ambassador Margaret Scobey.

“It’s a culmination of a long series with the Syrians, including ineffective or incomplete efforts to deal with the fact that Syrian territory is contributing to the insurgency in Iraq,” Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said.

“The Syrians need to understand that the United States is very serious about activities out of Syria that may be endangering our forces,” she told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee yesterday.

Miss Rice said she would not put conditions to Syria to send Miss Scobey back to Damascus, although “we will make known that there are some steps that we would like to see taken.”

Meanwhile, Israel said yesterday that Iran was just six months away from being able to build an atomic bomb.

“The question is not if the Iranians will have a nuclear bomb in 2009, 10 or 11; the main question is when are they going to have the knowledge to do it,” Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom told reporters during a visit to London.

“We believe in six months from today they will end all the tests and experiments they are doing to have that knowledge,” he said.

• This article is based in part on wire service reports.