Syria, Egypt Won’t Follow Libya’s Lead

SHARM EL SHEIK, Egypt — Syria and Egypt dismissed a call from Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi for Arab nations to follow his lead and rid themselves of weapons of mass destruction, insisting Wednesday that Israel must first eliminate its suspected nuclear arsenal.

Kadafi’s remark was seen as being aimed at Syria. U.S. officials have repeatedly said that Syria has chemical weapons and sponsors terrorism, but Damascus denies the charges.

Egypt has failed to ratify the chemical weapons convention and reportedly used such arms when it intervened in Yemen’s civil war in the 1960s. It is unclear whether Egypt still has chemical weapons.

U.S. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell ratcheted up the pressure Wednesday, urging Syria to “get out of the hole” of being an international pariah.

“You need to start getting rid of weapons of mass destruction programs, stop supporting terrorist activities which destabilize the region and come out and start participating in the 21st century world that has benefits for you -- if you will get rid of this kind of behavior,” Powell said during a radio show.

Kadafi also said that if other nations abandon such weapons, it would increase pressure on Israel to do likewise.

Neither Syrian President Bashar Assad nor Egyptian head of state Hosni Mubarak spoke to reporters after their talks in the resort town of Sharm el Sheik, which took place after Kadafi’s speech.

In a statement at the end of their meeting, Assad and Mubarak stressed that “current developments in the Middle East demonstrate the need to declare the Middle East a zone free of all weapons of mass destruction -- including all states and Israel.”