'A Long Road Ahead'

We do not even have a nuclear reactor for peaceful means. Last summer we proposed a draft resolution for the U.N. Security Council to make the Middle East free of mass-destruction weapons.

What about America's demand that you stop providing a haven for militant Palestinian groups like Hamas and the Islamic Jihad?

A few months ago, Israel used to say that Syria hosted the leaders of these organizations. But they actually killed the leaders of Hamas [Ahmed Yassin and Abdel Aziz Rantisi] in Palestine [Gaza]. In Syria, we have less than 10 individuals expelled by Israel and not invited by Syria. They came to Syria and rented a house and carried out media work to express their view. So far, we haven't intervened in the Palestinian question--neither negatively or positively--because of our disagreements with [Yasir Arafat's] Palestinian Authority. The U.S. role is very important. [But] now we see that the priority for the United States is the question of Iraq, not Palestine.

If you did ask the Hamas [officials] to leave, where would they go?

That is the question. The only place they could go is back to their land ... We don't expel people.

Many external and opposition groups have called for you to lift Syria's decades-old state of emergency laws. Do you plan to do so?