US trying deflect blame from Iraq setbacks on Syria: Assad

WASHINGTON - US charges of Syrian support for Iraq's violent insurgency amounts to little more than scapegoating, President Bashar al-Assad insisted Monday.
In interview broadcast Monday on NBC news, Assad said Damascus has "never" had a hand in insurgent attacks in Iraq and insisted that Washington hopes to deflect blame from its own military failures there.
The Syrian leader added that in lodging the accusations, George W. Bush administration officials "want to absolve themselves from the responsibility," for the continuing violence in war-torn Iraq.
"They blame others. They are looking for scapegoats," he said. "Their war was a fiasco."
Washington accuses the Syrian regime of allowing anti-US insurgents to cross from Syria into Iraq and of supporting terrorist groups in Lebanon and in the Palestinian territories. Syria denies the accusations.
Assad added that it would be counterproductive to foment violence and unrest along his own border.
"What's my interest in having chaos in Iraq?" he said.

05/07/2007 12:10 GMT