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Thursday, Feb. 17, 2005

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  The United States has also said both countries, which are under U.S. economic sanctions, need to do more to prevent insurgents from using their territory to cross into Iraq.

The United States has accused Iran of seeking to produce nuclear weapons. President Bush has labeled Iran part of an "axis of evil" with North Korea and prewar Iraq, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice last month labeled Tehran an "outpost of tyranny."

On Thursday, Bush said Syria was "out of step" with other nations in the Middle East, and the United States would work with other countries to pressure Damascus to remove its troops from Lebanon.

Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa told CNN earlier this month that Syria has about 15,000-16,000 troops in Lebanon.

U.S. relations with Syria have deteriorated, especially since the attack that killed former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Many Lebanese blamed Monday's car bombing in Beirut on Syria but the Syrian government denied responsibility. Washington withdrew its ambassador from Syria in apparent response to the assassination.

Iran's powerful former President Hashemi Rafsanjani, speaking after meeting Syrian Prime Minister Mohammad Naji al-Otari, said it was important to strengthen relations between Iran, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and other Islamic states in the region, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

The relationships between Persian Shiite Iran and Arab countries have been rocky for some time. They were strained after the 1979 revolution in Iran and worsened during the eight-year war against Iran launched by Saddam Hussein.

Almost all Arab countries - except Syria - supported Iraq in the war out of fear that Iran's revolution would spread.

Rafsanjani, who is widely expected to run in Iran's June presidential elections, said the United States and Israel were trying to create divisions among the region's countries, which he said must "stay completely vigilant vis-a-vis the U.S. and Israeli plots in this regard."

Al-Otari was quoted by IRNA as saying Israel was "the source of instability" in the Middle East, and Syria would continue supporting the Palestinians and Lebanese in their struggle.

Both Syria and Iran back Hezbollah, which Washington considers a terrorist group in part because it sponsors Palestinian violence and funds suicide bombings that have killed dozens of Israelis. Hezbollah operates mostly in southern Lebanon and has carried out a cross-border war with Israel for years.

Hezbollah led a guerrilla war against Israel's 18-year occupation of a border zone in southern Lebanon that ended in 2000, and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has said Hezbollah was responsible for about 80 percent of terror attacks on Israel.

On Wednesday, Syria and Iran said they would form a "united front" to confront possible threats against them. But the Syrian ambassador to the United States, Imad Moustapha, later said in a television interview that "we don't need an alliance against the United States."

© 2005 The Associated Press

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