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House panel votes impose syria sanctions { October 8 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/08/politics/08CND-SYRI.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/08/politics/08CND-SYRI.html
October 8, 2003
House Panel Votes to Impose Sanctions on Syria
By BRIAN KNOWLTON,
International Herald Tribune
ASHINGTON, Oct. 8 — The House International Relations Committee voted overwhelmingly today to impose economic and diplomatic sanctions on Syria to force it to take tougher steps against anti-Israel militant groups, after the White House, deeply frustrated by its diplomatic contacts with Damascus, dropped its opposition to the bill.
The committee voted 33 to 2 for the Syria Accountability Act, which demands that Damascus halt its support for terrorism, stop any programs to develop weapons of mass destruction and withdraw its troops from Lebanon.
The full House of Representatives, where 275 members co-sponsored the bill, is expected to pass the measure next week. The bill also has strong bipartisan support in the Senate, where the Foreign Relations Committee is set to examine the measure this month.
In acknowledging that the Bush administration had ended two years of opposition to the legislation, the White House spokesman, Scott McClellan, said, "Syria needs to change course, change its behavior, stop harboring terrorists."
The administration had insisted that such punitive legislation could intrude on the president's foreign-policy prerogatives, damage broader Middle East peace efforts and undercut any Syrian cooperation in combating terrorism.
But the State Department spokesman, Richard A. Boucher, acknowledged, "Frankly, the Syrians have done so little with regard to terrorism that we don't have a lot to work with."
He said that Syria continued to have "terrorist groups operating with offices and activities there, some training facilities, transshipments," and that when Damascus was asked to halt such activities, it took only "very, very, very small steps."
The White House decision followed, and was clearly was influenced by, Sunday's Israeli attack on a Syrian camp that Israel described as a terrorist training center. That airstrike was in retaliation for a suicide bombing on Saturday in the Israeli port city of Haifa, which killed 19 people.
Passage of the Syria bill would further test American relations with many Arab countries, already strained by the war with Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Asked about that possibility, Mr. Boucher replied, "What we're more worried about is groups that go around blowing up innocent people and undermining the Palestinian cause."
The United States has conducted "very intense" talks with Syria about cracking on terrorism, Mr. Boucher said.
"But dialogue at some point has to lead to action," he said.
The Israeli airstrike, and a series of inflammatory comments from both Israel and Syria, have sharply raised fears in the region that a dangerous new conflict could break out.
In Beirut, the United Nations' top Middle East envoy, Terje Roed-Larsen, urged Syria and Israel today not to allow the Israeli strike to escalate into a wider conflict.
"Attacks and couterattacks like these are taking us down a steep and precarious path toward more violence," he was quoted by Reuters as saying.
After the war in Iraq, fears spread in the Middle East that Syria, long on the United States' list of terror-sponsoring states and frequently mentioned as a sort of junior member of President Bush's "axis of evil," might be the next target of American military might. The Bush administration, however, rejected such suggestions.
The Syrian government and people who live near the camp targeted by the Israeli strike insisted that it had been abandoned years ago. But to the administration, the airstrike apparently underscored Syria's failure to end all ties to terrorist groups.
American officials assert that Syria has allowed anti-American militants to cross into Iraq and may have let some fleeing Iraqi leaders enter the country before tightening border patrols.
Republicans in Congress said this week that the Israeli attack could help them move ahead with the Syria legislation.
The legislation calls on Syria to end all cooperation with Hamas, Hezbollah and other groups, halt any development of biological or chemical weapons and of medium- or long-range missiles, and withdraw its several thousand troops from Lebanon. The bill threatens economic and diplomatic sanctions, including a ban on sales of equipment with military or both military and civilian sales.
It would also require the president to impose at least two punitive measures from a list of six offered. They include a downgrading of diplomatic ties, a ban on all American exports to Syria, travel restrictions on Syrian diplomats, a freeze on Syrian assets, a halt to Syrian commercial flights to the United States, and a ban on American business investment in Syria.
When Secretary of State Colin L. Powell visited Damascus in May, with the visit itself drawing strong criticism from Syria's critics in Washington, he reportedly warned President Bashar Assad that the legislation was likely to proceed unless Syria took firm measures against terrorism.
But while Mr. Powell demanded, for example, that Syria close the offices in Damascus of anti-Israel militant groups, Damascus is said to have taken only half-hearted measures.
The State Department indicated last month that Mr. Powell had been quietly pursuing his contacts with Syria, and it said the administration wanted to give those contacts time to bear fruit.
John R. Bolton, undersecretary for arms control, told a Congressional committee on Sept. 16 that despite Syria's continued cooperation with terrorist groups, the administration was not ready to endorse sanctions against Damascus.
"Secretary Powell has been engaged in some very intensive diplomacy with the government of Syria," Mr. said. "He's engaged, even as we speak, in some very delicate balancing of a variety of factors, diplomatic and political."
A Washington political journal, The Hill, reported today that the White House gave up its opposition to the Syria bill last week, after weeks of negotiations with Representative Tom DeLay, Republican of Texas, the House majority leader.
Mr. DeLay had prevented the bill from leaving the committee until it received a White House imprimatur, but after traveling to Iraq and Israeli in August, he pressed the administration to step up the pressure on Syria.
Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company
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