Syrian says Israel drives U.S. policy [View All]

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http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/myrtlebeachonline/news/politics/15119081.htm

Syrian says Israel drives U.S. policy

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration, driven by ideologues and lobbyists, is in lockstep behind Israel in its 2-week-old battle with Hezbollah while promoting diplomacy unlikely to succeed, Syria's ambassador to the United States said Tuesday.

In an Associated Press interview, the envoy, Imad Moustapha, said all Syrian intelligence agents had left Lebanon along with Syrian troops and that Syria was not providing Hezbollah militia with missiles.

Hezbollah has its own sources of arms, Moustapha said, while saying that ideologues in the Bush administration and pro-Israeli lobbyists are driving U.S. policy support for Israel to unprecedented levels. "What Israel says is immediately adopted" by the administration, he said. "Whatever Israel wants becomes immediate U.S. policy in the Middle East."

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While Syria supports Hezbollah and also the Palestinian group Hamas, Hezbollah is "an autonomous movement" and "we are not engaged; we are not involved in logisitics," he said.