'A Long Road Ahead'

Since the war started in Iraq we have been talking to the American administration, and we have always asked the Americans to give us one passport, one name, of this happening. So far we haven't received anything. We do not have any evidence that Syrians went into Iraq, nor have the Americans been able to give us any. We used to tell the Americans that they couldn't control their border with Mexico. [Another examples is that during the Syria-Iraq] conflict in the '80s, Saddam Hussein used to send trucks full of explosives to Syria. They killed thousands of Syrians over a number of years. Even then we could not control our borders. It is not possible for any state to control its border completely.

How do you feel about the photos showing Iraqi prisoners being abused at Abu Ghraib?

What we saw in those photos goes beyond my human feelings. I cannot find the words to express how I felt. [Politically,] it goes against what we know about the United States. It goes against what the United States is saying about democracy ... Is it the democracy of Abu Ghraib prison? What's more important is the reaction of ordinary [Syrian] citizens. These scenes establish a kind of hatred for the U.S. For a long time we have had problems with the American administration, not the American people. I am afraid these things will accumulate and people will no longer distinguish between the U.S. administration and its people, and this is dangerous.

Is there anything the United States can do to restore its credibility?

From what we hear from Iraqis, the situation is worse [now] than under Saddam Hussein. Then there was a dictatorship, now there is not a democracy there. American credibility was harmed not by these photos, but by the war itself.

You say there is no democracy in Iraq. But people say the same about Syria.