DAMASCUS, Syria, Nov. 23 (UPI) -- A Syrian official says Iraq's neighbors should officially oppose its use as a launching pad for acts of aggression against other nations.

Syrian Interior Minister Bassam Abdulmajid, at a meeting of the Security Cooperation and Coordination Committee for Iraq's Neighbors in Damascus Sunday, criticized a U.S. raid staged last month allegedly aimed at attacking Iraqi terrorists taking shelter across the Syrian border.


The Kuwait news agency, KUNA, said Abdulmajid called for the group to issue a formal policy stating, "Iraq is not to be used as a launch pad for any acts of aggression against neighboring states under any circumstance."

The group was formed in 2006 by the interior ministers of Iraq's neighbors in an attempt to assert control over their borders with Iraq and to stop the infiltration of arms and fighters into the country.

Iraqi Foreign Undersecretary Lubaid Abbawi told the group that important political and security developments within Iraq have encouraged the return of refugees to the country, KUNA reported.