 The Syrian and Iranian governments reacted angrily yesterday to George Bush's vow to confront them over their alleged harbouring of terrorists and pursuit of weapons of mass destruction. The American president's state of the union speech on Wednesday night identified Syria and Iran as the primary obstacles to the Bush administration's declared mission to spread peace and democracy in the Middle East. It sent tremors through the region, raising fears that the administration might have more military action on its second-term agenda.
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, denounced the United States as "like one of the big heads of a seven-headed dragon", menacing his country under the direction of "Zionist and non-Zionist capitalists". "Bush is the fifth US president seeking to uproot the Iranian nation and the Islamic Republic of Iran. Carter, Reagan and father Bush and Clinton failed. This president will also fail," the Associated Press quoted him as saying.
| "Just like he did in ... um, never mind." |
The response from Damascus also reflected growing nervousness at Mr Bush's intentions. "Freedoms cannot be exported by tanks and planes, death and destruction," said Syria's information minister, Mehdi Dakhlallah.
| "It didn't work for us in Lebanon, either!" he added. |
"Everyone knows that Syria is cooperating in fighting terrorism, but the definition of terrorism cannot be selective and based on ideology and politics," he said.
| Notice that our definition isn't. |
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