BEIRUT, 23 December 2004 — Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage warned Syria yesterday that the United States was prepared to impose new sanctions if it failed to clamp down on fugitive Iraqi officials and end its involvement in Lebanon.
“I hope that our relations with Syria do not worsen further but it’s entirely in the hands of Damascus,” the State Department number two told the Beirut daily An-Nahar.
“Syria’s failure to accept UN Security Council Resolution 1559 is a defiance of the international community,” he said referring to a Sept. 2 text which demanded an end to foreign interference in Lebanon, in an implicit allusion to Syria’s dominant role in its smaller neighbor.
On Iraq, Armitage conceded that Syria had taken some steps towards meeting US demands by agreeing to joint border patrols and acting against insurgent funding but added: “We are asking them to do much more.”
In particular, he said Washington wanted action taken against fugitive officials of the ousted regime, who remained at liberty in Syria and who “seem to us to be responsible for funding anti-US attacks in Iraq.”
“We want them to turn off this faucet,” said Armitage, according to the paper’s Arabic translation of his remarks.
