Syria would join war if it felt provoked

MADRID, July 23 (UPI) -- Syria will join Hezbollah's fight against Israel if Israeli ground troops in Lebanon approach Syria, Syria's information minister told Madrid a newspaper.

"If Israel makes a land invasion of Lebanon and comes near to us, Syria ... will join the conflict," Information Minister Mohsen Bilal said in an interview with the Diario ABC newspaper, adding, "We have cooperation forces on alert."

Bilal also criticized the United States for not working fast enough to broker a cease-fire. He called it "unjustifiable" that "the superpower" was not working "for a rapid cease-fire."

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, leaving for the Middle East Sunday, has said she would pursue a lasting solution, not an immediate cease-fire.

"Are they waiting for Israel to destroy Lebanon and for it to have to be evacuated completely?" Bilal said.

He also denied Syria was bankrolling Hezbollah.

"We do not finance any resistance," he said.

But he said Hezbollah had the moral support and sympathy of Syria.

Bilal said Syria's top priority in the war was an Israeli-Hezbollah cease-fire "as soon as possible," along with a prisoner exchange. He said he worked toward that end with Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, with whom he met in Madrid.