DAMASCUS, 12 March 2004 — Syria responded indignantly yesterday to US plans to impose new sanctions for what Washington views as its support for terrorism. “This law is arbitrary and has no justification,” Deputy Foreign Minister Isa Darwish told Reuters in an interview.
US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs William Burns said on Wednesday Washington would soon adopt a “very firm implementation” of the Syria Accountability Act signed by President George W. Bush in December.
“This law was passed to satisfy Israel because all its contents represent Israeli demands, especially regarding the Syrian presence in Lebanon and Hezbollah,” Darwish said.
“I think you’ll see the implementation very shortly, and I think it will be a very firm implementation of the Syrian Accountability Act and the intent behind it,” Burns told a committee in the House of Representatives. The Bush administration is expected to impose economic sanctions, rather than diplomatic ones, according to congressional sources and other people familiar with the matter.
A senior administration official said it was “probably accurate” that a decision on the sanctions was imminent. But he said, “We don’t know when or what they will be.” The official said the type of sanctions to be imposed was “being evaluated by the administration as we speak.”
Burns was testifying to the House International Relations Committee on developments in Libya, which has renounced terrorism and is cooperating to dismantle its own weapons of mass destruction program. Asked if he has seen any similar moves in Syria, Burns said, “No sir.”
The administraion also asks Bush to impose at least two other sanctions from a menu that includes barring US investments in Syria, restricting travel in the United States by Syrian diplomats, and banning US exports to Syria other than food and medicine.
The law presses Syria to scrap any weapons of mass destruction it might have, stop backing anti-Israeli Palestinian and Lebanese militants, withdraw its forces from Lebanon and prevent anti-US fighters from crossing its border into Iraq.
Darwish rejected all US criticism on these issues, but reiterated that Syria was ready to discuss them with Washington. “We are not against US interests in the region but we want the United States to understand Syria’s interests and rights and those of Arabs as well,” he said. “We want open dialogue to replace sanctions, one based on joint interests and respect.”
Officials in Iraq’s interim government have accused adjacent countries, including Syria, of not doing enough to stop an influx of foreign fighters opposed to the US-led occupation.
Darwish said Syria’s military presence in Lebanon was by the consent of a sovereign Beirut government. He described Hezbollah resistance group as an integral part of Lebanon’s political system, which had confined its military action to occupied Lebanese soil.
Syria has had troops there for nearly three decades, but has been reducing their numbers, especially since President Bashar Assad took office in 2000.
Darwish said Palestinian groups had the right to express their cause in a country that hosts half a million Palestinian refugees, but said they had closed their “media” offices in Damascus and conducted no other activity in Syria.
