DAMASCUS, Oct 9: Syria blasted on Thursday the prospects of US sanctions against it over alleged support for terrorism as relations between Washington and Damascus sank to their lowest level in 13 years.
But Israel, accused by Syria of being behind the sanctions moves, welcomed them.
“The American decision is the result of an Israeli campaign against Syria which echoed the hawks in the American administration,” said the official Ath Thawra daily, as officials themselves remained silent.
“All the decisions of these (US) leaders are taken with a view to serving Israel, its policies and its aggressive aims,” the paper said.
Ath Thawra also recalled that Syria’s cooperation with the United States in cracking down on the Al Qaeda network had not long ago led the White House to express its satisfaction with Damascus’s anti-terrorism efforts.
Allied with the United States during the 1991 Gulf war, then partnered with President George Bush in his “fight against terrorism” following the Sept 11 attacks, Syria could now find itself boycotted by the same administration.
The government daily Tishrin took a more diplomatic approach, saying Syria “remains bound by international law” and was “open to an objective, constructive and balanced dialogue with all the world’s countries”.
But it warned that “national principles, its rights and the interests of its people came first”.
A key US congressional body, the House International Relations Committee, voted on Wednesday in favor of diplomatic and economic sanctions, accusing Syria of supporting terrorism and developing weapons of mass destruction.
The Bush administration also said it would no longer oppose the bill, giving it a strong chance of passage by the full House of Representatives next week.
If passed, the bill would empower the president to ban various US exports to Syria, specifically “dual use” commodities such as computers or fertilizers.
It would also call on the president to select two sanctions from a menu of six, from downgrading diplomatic relations to reducing business ties with Syria to imposing travel restrictions on Syrian diplomats in the United States.
In Lebanon, the pro-Damascus El Shark newspaper said the resolution “is part of a long series of (US) positions that profit Israel and whose goal is to eliminate Arab rights”.
For the liberal An Nahar, the bill’s progress “incontestably proves that the crisis between America and Syria is a deep one and that it has worsened after Damascus delayed in responding favourably to American demands”.
ISRAEL HAILS MOVE: Israel welcomed the steps towards imposing sanctions on Syria, which an Israeli general branded a “terrorist state”.
“The United States is going to make Syria suffer the consequences of its refusal to shut down the headquarters of Palestinian terrorist organizations in Damascus, from where the orders originate to launch attacks on Israel,” said a high-ranking official.
Washington should follow “the same tactics as in Afghanistan, making it clear that all countries that support terrorism will pay the price, and that the United States will act with determination to punish them,” he added.
For his part, Israeli chief of staff Gen Moshe Yaalon told army radio his country should keep acting against the Palestinian Authority and Syria, “which continues to be a terrorist state, sheltering Palestinian terrorist organizations responsible for attacks in our cities”.
In Cairo, the Arab League warned that an eventual US decision to impose sanctions on Syria would “increase tension in the region”.
It would “increase tension in the region, make chances for peace more remote and block any serious dialogue between the United States and Syria,” the Arab League said in a statement.
The move which comes “just after the Israeli aggression against Syria raises questions about the issue of the double campaign targeting Syria,” from both the United States and Israel, the statement said.
But in Damascus, an analyst said any sanctions would essentially be “symbolic” as commercial and political ties between Syria and the United States are already highly restricted. —AFP
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