Syria's foreign minister has said his country is willing to help rid the Middle East of weapons of mass destruction in line with its recent proposal to the United Nations.
Washington accuses Syria of developing chemical weapons, a charge the Arab state denies. Asked by reporters in Cairo whether Syria would allow arms inspections, visiting Foreign Minister Farouq al-Shara said:
"No . . . after this initiative, this Syrian proposal [at the United Nations] . . . Syria won't allow any inspection. It will only participate with its [Arab] brothers and all of the states of the world in turning the Middle East into an area free of weapons of mass destruction".
It was not immediately clear if the remarks were a departure from Syria's stated position that it would only allow weapons inspections if they applied to all countries in the region, including Israel, which is widely believed to possess nuclear arms.
A ministry spokesman in Damascus declined to expand on Shara's comments.
Syria's deputy ambassador to Washington told a US television programme on Sunday that Syria would welcome intrusive US inspections into the arms programmes of all countries in the Middle East if they included Israel.