WASHINGTON (Islamweb & News Agencies) - Secretary of State Colin Powell, seeking an alliance against those who attacked the United States this week, said on Friday Washington would now judge countries by their willingness to help.``This has become a new benchmark, a new way of measuring the relationship and what we can do together in the future and what kind of support we can provide to you in the future across the whole range of issues and activities,'' he said.
``If they are simply unresponsive, and we deem that unresponsiveness to be contributing to additional terrorism or to the fertile ground in which terrorism thrives, then that will certainly affect the kind of relationship we're going to have with them in the future,'' he told a briefing.
Powell has spent the last three days working to build up an international coalition in preparation for a possible offensive against the group that attacked the Pentagon and the World Trade Center on Tuesday. Hundreds of people are confirmed dead and thousands are missing.
The prime suspect is Saudi-born militant multimillionaire Osama bin Laden, who is believed to be living in Afghanistan under the protection of the ruling Taliban.
On Friday Powell spoke to the foreign ministers of Japan, India, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Morocco, Portugal, Syria, Bahrain, Kuwait and South Korea to press his case for action against extremist organizations.
He also had phone calls with Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer and Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, a U.S. official said.
WEALTHY SUPPORTERS
``The basic message for people is to take a stand, to share information, to cut any support activities that may be going on, and that we are in this together for the long haul and there will be more things that we all have to do in the future, so get ready for more requests,'' another U.S. official said.
``One of the things we're talking about is stopping the money -- any money flows connected with these organizations we want stopped,'' he added.
Bin Laden has a private fortune estimated at 300 million but his organization has also received donations from wealthy supporters in Arab Gulf states.
In most cases, the United States is sending a standard message without specifics, but in the case of Pakistan and others it is presenting a list of requests for action, said the official, who asked not to be identified.
As part of his campaign, Powell spoke on Thursday to Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, Egyptian presidential adviser Osama al-Baz, Chinese Vice-Premier Qian Qichen, Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Lafer, Bahraini Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammad bin Mubarak al-Khalifa and Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr al-Thani.
``Beyond that, we have instructed our ambassadors around the world to go in and talk to their colleagues ... to let them know how serious we are about this and begin to set the stage for any other requests we might have,'' Powell said.
CONTACT WITH SYRIANS
The United States has asked Pakistan to close the border with Afghanistan, cut off fuel supplies to the Taliban and let U.S. planes fly over the country, U.S. officials say.
Powell said the United States had not yet received a formal reply from Pakistan but Musharraf did tell Powell on Thursday his country was willing to cooperate.
Powell's conversation with Syrian Foreign Minister Farouq al-Shara was his first contact since Tuesday with one of the governments on the State Department's list of seven ``state sponsors of terrorism.''
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad sent President Bush a strong letter of support after the attacks on Tuesday.
``He called Shara to thank him for the statement and the letter from Bashar, to tell him we look to cooperate with Syria and to reinforce the point that we are going to have to take action against the perpetrators,'' a U.S. official said.
Powell's previous experience with Bashar al-Assad was not a promising precedent. Assad assured Powell in February that Syria would let the United Nations supervise a pipeline carrying Iraqi oil but it has not yet done so.
A State Department official said on Friday the United States would like to build on Iran's sympathetic response to the attacks.
Iranian leaders from reformists to conservatives have strongly condemned the attacks in an unprecedented show of sympathy for the United States, their enemy for the past 20 years.
Asked if the United States might go as far as inviting Iran into an alliance against the perpetrators, Powell said: ``Very few countries would be redlined out of (excluded from) a coalition. But a framework of agreement? I don't think we're there yet.''
PHOTO CAPTION:
Secretary of State Colin Powell gestures during a news conference at the State Department in Washington Friday, Sept. 14, 2001. Powell said he has told countries to stop supporting terrorist organizations or forget about maintaining good relations with the U.S. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
- Sep 14 4:37 PM ET