DAMASCUS, 9 March 2004 — The threat of imminent United States sanctions against Syria and delays in the signing of an association accord with the European Union risk radicalizing the 41-year-old Baathist regime and postponing still further expected reforms, diplomats say.
On Saturday, a US official said Washington was ready to apply sanctions against Syria, which it accuses of supporting terrorism, under the Syria Accountability Act that became law in late 2003.
The timing of this announcement, on the eve of the 41st anniversary yesterday of the coup d’etat that brought the Baath Party to power in Syria, was lost on no one.
The Syrian government, speaking through Economy Minister Ghassan Al-Rifai, reacted Sunday by asking the US to reconsider its decision and urged that dialogue should be maintained.
“There is little the Syrians can do if the sanctions are imposed. It’s likely that initially the first sanctions will not be too severe, but instead aimed at changing Damascus’ attitude,” a Western diplomat in Damascus told AFP, on condition of anonymity.
Washington notably accuses Damascus of developing weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) and letting armed fighters cross its border into Iraq, where US-led forces are fighting opponents of the new Iraqi leadership.
Several Western diplomats interviewed by AFP say the latter allegation seemed grossly exaggerated. “The Americans don’t say it, but everybody knows there are much bigger infiltrations via other countries than Syria... Syria has no interest in being complacent with Islamists,” one of them said.
“There is a risk that Syrians will react badly if they are asked things which they see as unjust,” he added. Washington is pressuring Syria to follow the example of Libya, which has recently renounced the development of WMDs.
What more seriously complicates matters and worries European circles in Damascus, is undisputedly the lack of a signature of an association accord between Syria and the EU.
Negotiations for it wound up on Dec. 9, 2003, but three European countries close to the US - Britain, Germany and the Netherlands - have since called for tighter restriction on WMDs than is provided for in the agreed text.
