Syria sanctions gain momentum
State Department lends support to bill in Congress
By Ken Guggenheim
Associated Press
October 31, 2003
WASHINGTON — State Department officials said Thursday that diplomatic efforts with Syria have shown little success and that they are prepared to support a sanctions bill Congress is close to passing.
“We have to recognize that we have some quite significant problems in our relationship,” William Burns, assistant secretary of State for Near Eastern affairs, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
The House has passed the bill, and the Senate could follow suit next week. The Senate sponsors have agreed to include an amendment that would give President Bush the flexibility he seeks to waive the sanctions on national security grounds.
Burns told senators he appreciated efforts to get the broader waiver. But after the hearing, he stopped short of saying Bush would sign the bill.
“That’s a decision the president is going to have to make, so I don’t want to try to anticipate that right now,” he said. “All I’d say is that our position remains that we don’t oppose passage of the legislation. We’ll take a careful look at the language that ultimately emerges.”
The United States accuses Syria of sponsoring terrorism, occupying Lebanon and not doing enough to secure its border with Iraq, which former figures of Saddam Hussein’s toppled government have crossed to enter Syria. Anti-American fighters are also believed to enter Iraq from Syria.
That creates potential for weapons of mass destruction to be smuggled from Iraq to Syria. But However, Cofer Black, the State Department’s top counterterrorism official, said there is no information indicating that the Syrian government has provided those weapons to terrorist groups or would do so.
The administration had opposed the sanctions but changed its view as momentum grew in Congress.
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), a sponsor of the bill, asked Burns to explain the turnaround.
Black said that extensive dialogue with top Syrian officials has “borne little fruit in changing Syrian actions on support for terrorism.”
Burns did cite some progress. He said efforts have improved recently to secure the Iraqi border and cooperation has improved in searching for Iraqi frozen assets in Syria. He also noted that Syria supported the U.S.-sponsored UN Security Council resolution on Iraq.
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