Syria comes under American scrutiny

Will Syria be the next target?

Washington has accused Damascus of harbouring senior members of the Iraqi regime, possessing and testing chemical weapons and sponsoring terrorism. So could war with Syria be next?

In a HARDtalk interview on April 16th, Tim Sebastian talks to a former British Ambassador to Damascus, Sir Andrew Green and to the former Arab League representative to London, Ghayth Armanazi, who is a Syrian.

American bullying

Ghayth Armanazi accuses the Americans of trying to intimidate and bully Syria: "The American approach [which] is a gung-ho, arrogant, swaggering approach is the wrong policy to adopt," he says.

"It will be counterproductive and will have a backlash."

"It will have an impact not just in Syria but all over the Arab and Muslim world in a way that cannot serve the interests of America," he says.

Sir Andrew Green says he thinks that America's tactics have been very foolish:

"The effect of these public threats is to give the impression to the entire world, especially the Arab and Muslim world that here are the Americans about to bully another Arab country and even possibly invade it, [though I doubt it] and that seems an extremely foolish thing to do if your objective is to deter terrorist attacks." he says.

Harbouring Iraqis

Sir Andrew Green: Americans are being foolish

If there are any top Iraqis in Syria, Sir Andrew Green thinks that the way the Americans have gone public in demanding Damascus hand them over has had the effect of humiliating Syria.

"They will either conceal them or give them an air ticket to move on, " he warns. "I would be very surprised if they handed them over to the Americans".

Chemical weapons

Sir Andrew Green says he does not know if the Syrians have chemical weapons.

Even if they do, he says they do not pose a threat:¿ The risk of the Syrians actually using chemical weapons is very close to zero."

HARDtalk can be seen on BBC World at 0330gmt, 0830gmt, 1530gmt, 1830gmt and 2330gmt. It can also be seen on BBC News 24 at 0430 and 2330