US Chose Bad Time to Impose Syria Sanctions-Arabs

Reuters ^ | Wed May 12, 2004 11:46 AM ET | Lin Noueihed

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

US Chose Bad Time to Impose Syria Sanctions-Arabs
Wed May 12, 2004 11:46 AM ET

By Lin Noueihed

BEIRUT (Reuters) - The United States, battling a prisoner abuse scandal and insurgency in Iraq, could not have chosen a worse time to slap new sanctions on Syria, Arabs said Wednesday.

Many warned that the sanctions, welcomed only by Syria's arch-foe Israel, would only fuel anger against America.

"If they are having such trouble in Iraq, they should at least calm down Iraq's neighbors," said Mohamed al-Sayed Said of Egypt's al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies.

"Whoever is ruling Syria would be foolish not to try harder to embarrass the Americans in Iraq. Anyone seeing his regime so severely undermined and humiliated would have no option but to try and spoil it for the Americans in Iraq."

Labeling Syria "an unusual and extraordinary threat," President Bush Tuesday signed an order imposing sanctions long in the pipeline on Damascus for backing anti-Israeli groups and allowing anti-American insurgents to cross the Syrian border into Iraq.

Damascus has repeatedly said the sanctions would only harm the handful of American firms in Syria and would not persuade it to end backing for groups it defends as legitimate resistance.

Many Arabs said the widely-expected move was the latest in a series of Middle East policy mistakes driven by Washington's blind bias toward Israel, the only country in the region to welcome the sanctions.

"This is an important decision that proves, once again, the resolve of the United States to wage all-out war -- not just against terrorist groups, but also against the countries that harbor them," the Israeli foreign ministry said in a statement.

NO EFFECT

The sanctions ban exports except for food and medicine, freeze assets of Syrians and Syrian entities suspected of links to terror or weapons of mass destruction and ban Syrian flights to and from the United States.

Bush will consider further sanctions unless Damascus ends its support for anti-Israeli militant groups such as the Palestinian Hamas and Lebanon's Hizbollah, pulls its troops out of Lebanon, ends development of forbidden weapons and cooperates fully with U.S.-led efforts to stabilize Iraq.

"(The sanctions) are only going to increase tension in the region, and we have enough of that," Kuwaiti Islamist parliamentarian Nasser al-Sane told Reuters.

"Because Syria is an Arab country there's going to be an Arab reaction sympathetic to Syria, because its a member of the Arab family this is only going to increase the conflict."

Damascus, which bitterly opposed the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, has described the sanctions as "unjust and unwarranted."

It says it has done its best to control the border but would still pursue a policy of "dialogue" with Washington.

"When they say the Syrians should be more careful about the border, they forget to mention that they (the Americans) are on the other side. Why aren't they doing a better job?" an Arab League official said.

"I don't think this is the right approach. The right approach is through dialogue, especially since they have recently indicated they have seen the Syrians cooperate."

Lebanese President Emile Lahoud, whose country is under heavy political and military influence from Syria, said the sanctions were "wrong in both content and timing" and were further proof that Washington pandered to Israeli interests.

"This decision poses the question of whether the series of mistakes the American administration is committing in the region will lead to more tensions, escalation and feelings of injustice on the Arab side," he said in a statement.

Some dismissed the sanctions as little more than symbolic, given Washington's economic and political ties with Damascus.

"The American pressure on Syria is a long-term plan and this is part of it," said Saudi political analyst Abdullah al-Otaibi.

"U.S. image in the Middle East is already bad," said another Gulf analyst. "It just solidifies the Arab conviction that Israel is running the show in the Middle East."

[RightWhale]

How about a new American Army base just north of Damascus? Should be good for the Syrian economy.

[Centurion2000]

Unfortunately for the Japanese, the March 9 raid was the beginning, not the end, of LeMay's incendiary campaign. He sensed that his moment - a truly deadly man in charge of a huge democratic force free of government constraint - had at last arrived, as the imperial Japanese command was stunned and helpless. All the old problems - the weather, the enemy fighters, the jet stream, the high-altitude wear on the engines, political limitations on bombing civilians - were now irrelevant. There was to be no public objection to LeMay's burning down the industrial and residential center of the Japanese empire - too many stories about Japanese atrocities toward subjugated peoples and prisoners of war had filtered back to the American people. To a democratic nation in arms, an enemy's unwarranted aggression and murder are everything, the abject savagery of its own retaliatory response apparently nothing.

Muslims take heed. We're coming to this.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

I think there needs to be a new 8 lane superhighway from the Mediterraen thru Baghdad heading toward Tehran and Kabul. Should improve the commerce of all countries.

I am sure that France would see merit in improving the highways of commerce!

[hgro]

Syrians have been screwing the United States for years and nothing was done. Finally we have a president that has told them we have had enough. When they disgorge the WMDs and round up their and their imported terrorists then and only then should we get serious about dealing with them. A warning should be given to the Egyptioans that they too should get their house in order.

[ASA Vet]

throw all muslims out of the U.S

Most mooselimbs in the U.S. are native born U.S. citizens.
Where do you want to send them, and will your chosen place take them?

[jdege]

Muslims take heed. We're coming to this.

Not for a while, yet.

We're still in the "moderate reform" phase, where we try things like ejecting dictators and giving "moderate" muslims the chance to build a peacable society.

But we'll get there, if the Arab world doesn't change.

The basic truth is that we cannot change the Arab world - we can only destroy it. Only they can change it.

But one way or another, the threat is going to end.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

The Leftist appeasers such as Kerry and Clinton must not get control of this country again.

[RightWhale]

Egypt is okay. They are with the program for the most part. They always were more cosmopolitan than the yokels in Syria.

[RightWhale]

Maybe it is time. Columbus was searching for a route to India, or China as they say, that would not involve going through Moslim land, and of course such a route was found even though Columbus was not part of that particular discovery. The Middle East was indeed happily put on the back burner economically and there it stayed until the oil unfortunately became important. Trade routes are still important, but there is so much choice these days that a new road from Cairo to Bombay wouldn't necessarily dominate trade but would give the region something in addition to oil to drive the economy.

[blam]

"We are working our way slowly to this happenning again!"

Something equivelent anyway.

[RasterMaster]

Send them all to Allah....he can decide what to do with them.

[MEG33]

I may faint,I may cry...we may have the arabs cease to love us like they did before the sanctions.We may anger the arab street!..I am without comfort. Syria has always been so helpful/s

[bitt]

ping - I'm keeping this!

[aculeus]

Huh? Is this reporting? An op/ed piece? WTF!

It's not reporting. It's Reuters.

[hershey]

Well, of course it's Victor Davis Hanson and it's wonderful.