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Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A51860-2003Jan13.html
Syrians Walk a Diplomatic Tightrope
(Washington Post) - Syria provided intelligence to the U.S. on the al Qaeda network. Yet it hosts Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian group responsible for bombings of civilians in Israel, and helps Hizballah, a Lebanese Shiite Muslim movement that the U.S. State Department lists as a terrorist organization. Syria also has tolerated an illicit oil trade and permitted arms to be taken across Syrian territory to Iraq, both in violation of UN resolutions. Syria has dismissed Secretary of State Colin Powell's complaints that the deliveries breached UN rules. Recently, documents from a weapons facility in Bosnia indicated that jet parts were shipped through Syria into Iraq. U.S. officials said a ship seized at sea by Croatian officials carried rocket fuel and was destined for Iraq via the Syrian port of Tartus.