Iran, Syria should pay for protest damage -Annan

By Irwin Arieff

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Iran, Syria and other
governments that failed to protect foreign embassies from mobs
protesting over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad should pay for
the damage, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Monday.

The cartoons’ publication in a Danish newspaper have
triggered widespread protests across the Muslim world including
violent attacks on Western diplomatic offices in a number of
countries.

“The government has a responsibility to prevent these
things from happening. They should have stopped it, not just in
Syria or Iran but all around,” Annan said.

“Not having stopped it, I hope they will pick up the bill
for the destruction that has been caused to all the foreign
countries,” he told CNN. “They should be prepared to pay for
the damage done to Danish, Norwegian and the other embassies
concerned.”

Danish facilities have been singled out for attacks,
including diplomatic missions in Syria, Lebanon and Iran.

Denmark has withdrawn its diplomatic staff from Indonesia
and Iran because of threats to their security, and from Syria,
citing inadequate security provision by the Syrian authorities.

Annan said he personally raised the question of government
responsibility with Syria’s ambassador to the United Nations,
Fayssal Mekdad, asking him, “Why couldn’t you stop it?”

“His answer was, ‘It was so spontaneous, we couldn’t stop
it.”‘ Annan said.

Mekdad, who was named Syria’s vice foreign minister over
the weekend, was en route to Damascus and unavailable for
comment, an aide in Syria’s U.N. Mission said.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice accused the Syrian
and Iranian authorities over the weekend of helping incite the
violence in their countries.

But Annan said he had no evidence of that. “You had
demonstrations all over the world,” he told CNN.