IRAQ, SYRIA MOVE CLOSER IN ECONOMIC AND MILITARY COOPERATION
PARIS-WASHINGTON 25 Aug. (IPS) The United States has quietly acknowledged that Iraq and Syria have rapidly developed military co-operation.
U.S. officials and defence sources said Iraq and Syria have been co-ordinating in military exercises as well as communications, command and control. They said the co-operation has increased significantly in recent months.
Last week, Iraq and Syria signed a mutual defence pact meant to respond to any Israeli attack, the sources said. The sources said the co-operation is also linked to Iran, Syria's leading ally.
Iraq has deployed troops near both the Jordanian and Syrian borders. Over the last year, Iraqi and Syrian military commanders have discussed the prospect of a war against Israel.
A U.S. defence source confirmed that Iraqi troops have been deployed from an area of Irbil in the north to the Syrian border. The source said Iraqi and Syrian troops have integrated their anti-aircraft and command and control systems along their mutual border, the Middle East News Link reported.
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has asserted that his country has improved its air defences against U.S. or British attacks, warned of an "imminent conflict with Washington" and at the same time offered Syria military assistance.
During his "historic" visit to Baghdad made earlier this month, Syrian Prime Minister Mustafa Miro was offered a range of economic and military help from Iraq.
"Iraq will stand by Syria and provide support, including military", Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan said on Monday.
Miro’s visit to Iraq, the first by a Syrian Prime Minister relations were broken off in 1980, marks a new stage in improving ties between the two neighbours.
The two countries had been locked in hostility since Arab Syria backed Sh’ia Iran in the 1980-1988 War with Iraq. Syria also fought in the 1991 international coalition that ousted Iraq from Kuwait after seven months of occupation.
"All aggression against Iraq is an aggression against Syria", Miro told the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
"The Syrian-Iraqi relationship is intriguing", Assistant Defence Secretary for International Security Affairs Peter Rodman said during a briefing on Tuesday. "There's a rivalry that goes back many decades, yet in the present environment they seem to have common ground in trying to complicate life for the United States and for Israel. I think there is a danger of conflict in the Middle East that is disturbing, but I don't want to speculate".
"Syrian-Iraqi talks come at a time of great tension in the region and we must close ranks in the face of Israeli threats", an Iraqi official, asking not to be named, told the French news agency Agence France Presse (AFP).
Earlier this month, a U.S. F-16 warplane flew from southern Turkey and remained 23 minutes in Syrian airspace. The Pentagon termed the over flight an accident, but U.S. defence sources asserted that the flight was meant to test Iraqi and Syrian anti-aircraft capabilities.
"The F-16 was immediately tracked", another defence source said. "The Syrians could have fired at us, but chose not to".
Miro visited Baghdad and discussed with President Saddam Hussein the situation in the Middle East, particularly ways and means of backing the Palestinian intifada, informed sources said.
On the economic front, the two countries are set to sign a series of agreements to double bilateral trade to one billion dollars a year compared to 500 million dollars currently.
Syria and Iraq are also examining plans to build a new oil pipeline, while the industry press said an old pipeline -- closed since 1982 after the break in ties -- was reopened last November.
Damascus has explained to the US State Department that the old pipeline was only being "tested", while Baghdad said in March that it had become obsolete and needed to be replaced. ENDS SYRIA IRAQ COOPERATION 25801