U.S. refuses to discuss Syrian chemical weapons reports

WASHINGTON -- The United States, on the eve of renewed peace negotiations between Damascus and Jerusalem, is refusing to confirm reports that Syria is testing chemical weapons.

The reports stemmed from U.S. intelligence sources and were published in the Washington Times earlier this month.

"I haven't seen that story so I can't really comment on it," State Department peace coordinator Dennis Ross told a briefing on Dec. 10.

Ross said Israel and Syria will be left to raise their own security concerns during talks that began in Washington on Dec. 15. "Clearly, security arrangements is one of the issues that has to be addressed if you are going to be able to produce a peace agreement and I am sure that both sides will have security questions that they are going to want to raise and discuss," Ross said.

Other U.S. officials said that enforcement of the Chemical Weapons Convention would be an arms control priority for the Clinton administration during the coming year.

Ross would not set a deadline for the Israeli-Syrian negotiations but he pointed to what he termed a "very clear commitment by Prime Minister Barak, by President Asad, to try to achieve an agreement between the two of them, between Israel and Syria, as soon as possible. What that's going to mean in practical terms, I can't say. But what we certainly feel and what we have certainly heard is that their objective is to achieve an agreement as soon as possible."

Asked whether the United States has offered security guarantees to convince Israel to withdraw from all of its outposts on the Golan Heights, Ross said, "The answer is no. The issue has not come up with us at this point."

Later, U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said no timetable has been set for the talks. "This is a large-scale discussion that involves all those area and I think ultimately the question of how Israel lives with its Arab neighbors and how it's able to really be in that area and develop normal relations around its borders," Ms. Albright said.