SYRIANS DENOUNCE ATTACKS ON IRAQI SHRINES AND

UNCLAS DAMASCUS 000727 SIPDIS SIPDIS PARIS FOR ZEYA, LONDON FOR TSOU E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL SOCI IZ SY SUBJECT: SYRIANS DENOUNCE ATTACKS ON IRAQI SHRINES AND MOSQUES ¶1. (U) Syrian officials and religious leaders strongly denounced the February 22 bombing of the Golden Mosque in Samara and subsequent attacks on Sunni mosques and warned against attempts to fragment Iraq's national unity. The Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) quoted an official source on February 22 as saying that: "The sinful attacks against holy shrines, mosques, and religious establishments are aimed at sowing sedition in Iraq and tearing apart the country's national unity." Syria's new FM Walid Mu'allim and Iranian First Vice President Parviz Dawoudi condemned in their February 22 meeting the spate of attacks that seek to create sedition in Iraq, according to Al-Thawra newspaper. Syria's Grand Mufti, Ahmad Baderedin Hassoun, called upon Islamic religious figures to prevent enemy schemes from tearing up Iraq's national unity. ¶2. (U) After Friday prayers on February 23, demonstrators outside the Sayda Zeinab Shiite mosque in Damascus protested the Samara attack with placards calling on the Iraqi people "to unite in the face of sedition and conspiracies which are being hatched by the occupation troops to weaken the unity of the Iraqi people," according to SANA. SECHE