Official sources in Damascus have denied reports that U.S. naval forces are monitoring ships in and out of Syrian ports.
The Israeli intelligence, Mossad, has revealed that American naval vessels, working in the Mediterranean are monitoring and inspecting ships heading for Syrian and Lebanese ports in the framework of a Western campaign aimed against terrorism, according to the Paris-based weekly al-Muharrir.
Numerous Syria and Lebanese trade ships were subjected to explicit inspections by the American naval forces in the international waters after these vessels had left the ports of the two countries, according to the report.
The paper quoted European intelligence information as saying that the American naval vessels in the Mediterranean sea are monitoring incoming and outgoing ships to the Syrian, Lebanese and Cypriot ports.
In addition, according to European intelligence, the Israeli naval force deployed 8 torpedoes, a sub-marine and various missile-equipped boats off the Lebanese and Syrian coasts, out of the territorial waters of the two countries last Sunday.
Meanwhile, US former assistant secretary of state Edward Djerejian said Sunday in Damascus that Syria and the United States are cooperating in the war against terror despite their strained relations. "I think there is some very serious interaction between the United States and Damascus after September 11, in terms of what can be done between the two countries to cooperate on the campaign against global terrorism," he conveyed.
"There have been different levels of cooperation from different countries, …the approach to combatting global terrorism takes many facets, from political cooperation, to military cooperation, to intelligence cooperation," Djerejian declared.
At present, Djerejian serves as the director of the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University, in Houston, Texas. (Albawaba.com)
