DAMASCUS, Syria, Dec. 25 (UPI) -- The Syrian Foreign Ministry Wednesday dismissed Israeli charges that Iraq had transferred its chemical and biological weapons to Syria.
A Foreign Ministry spokesman said Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's "allegations" were "baseless and ... aimed at diverting attention from the nuclear, chemical and biological arsenal in the possession of Israel."
Dismissing the claim as "ridiculous," the spokesman said Syria was a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
In an interview with Channel 2 TV Tuesday, Sharon said, "We have such information. We believe -- and have not yet finally verified -- that chemical biological weapons (Saddam Hussein) wanted to hide, were indeed transferred to Syria."
Acting on a new U.S.-drafted U.N. resolution, weapons inspectors earlier this month resumed their search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq interrupted in 1998.
Sharon gave no further details, but added that Israel is now "acting to verify these reports."
Syria and Iraq restored ties in 1997 when their common border, which was closed in the early 1980s, was reopened. The move helped consolidate economic ties and secured some $2 billion a year for Syria as part of the U.N. oil-for-food program with Iraq.
But political ties remain low-level.
Western diplomats believe that Syria, which rejects striking and partitioning Iraq, does not wish to develop its political ties with Baghdad for lack of confidence in Saddam Hussein whom it has accused of trying to destabilize the Syrian regime in the early 1980s.
