Syria renews denunciation over West's provocative moves

Syria has renewed its denunciation over the West's latest tactics against the administration of President Bashar al-Assad, calling talks of Syria's chemical weapons and the NATO's deployment of Patriot missiles on the Turkish borders with Syria as "provocative" and " naive." A Syrian official was quoted by the pro-government al-Watan daily on Tuesday as saying that the NATO deployment of Patriot missiles on the Turkish borders with Syria is "an additional provocative attempt in the framework of the war against Syria and to support the armed groups that are suffering a collapse in morale." One of the reasons behind the missiles deployment, the official said, is to draw the NATO to militarily interfere in Syria, support the armed groups and to blow up the diplomatic efforts by Lakhdar Brahimi. The official source also charged that the Patriot file has surfaced to overshadow the British and French attempts to deliver the weapons to the armed opposition and pump the funds to them. He said the "magnitude of the exaggeration attempt" against Syria stress the Syrian army's victory on ground and the failure of the armed groups in accomplishing their goals. The NATO has recently agreed on the Turkish government's request to deploy Patriot missiles along the Turkish borders with Syria under the pretext of protecting Turkey from a possible attack from Syria. Meanwhile, Syria's Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi also lashed out at Turkey for missiles deployment and stressed that any talk about Syrian threats against Turkey is "naive." "Syria never threatened, attacked or interfered in any neighboring countries' affairs," he said in an interview on the Lebanese al-Manar TV aired Monday evening. "Deployment of the Patriot missiles doesn't target Syria only; it is part of radars and early warning systems established by the U.S. with cooperation with the government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan. These systems target Iran, Syria, Cyprus, Greece, Egypt and other countries," he noted. On the case of Syria's chemical weaponries that has been brought up by the U.S. and its western allies recently, Al-Zoubi said that the U.S. and western repeated talks on the chemical weapons in Syria were caused by their inability to achieve any progress on the ground, "Syria doesn't own any internationally- banned weapons, whether chemical, nuclear or biological," he stressed, adding that "even if Syria possessed such weapons, it will not use them for moral reasons." "Statements on this topic resemble those issued against Iraq and other countries. We don't ignore any possibility, including the Iraqi scenario. The world can't bear the consequences of such risk. The western countries should realize that Syria isn't a simple or easy country. Damascus has friends and there are regional and international balances." He also stressed that the U.S. started dialogue with Russia when felt that its project is falling, adding that "yet, the dialogue between the two sides is positive if the talks are based on respecting the Syrian independency and as long as the talks will lead to a political process based on supporting the national dialogue." Al-Zoubi stressed the need to adhering to Geneva statement and the initiative of the former UN envoy Kofi Annan, that were based on respecting national independence and not meddling in the countries' internal affairs. He said the terrorist groups currently fighting on ground in Syria are extremist Takfiri organizations, stressing that "when the U.S. places (al-Qaida-linked) Jabhat al-Nusra on the international terrorist organizations' list, that means it realizes the nature of these groups which are fighting the Syrian forces."