Syria 'a step away' from facing US military action

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http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1118251.cms

 

Syria 'a step away' from facing US military action

 

TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ MONDAY, MAY 23, 2005 01:25:53 AM]

 

JORDAN: THE US economic sanctions on Syria are a step away from US

military action on the middle eastern country, a US congressman said

here during a conference on reform in the Arab world. " Sanctions are

one step below a military confrontation, and sanctions are preferable

to military confrontation, frankly, " said US Rep. Christopher Shays, a

Republican from Connecticut.

 

Mr Shays, speaking on Saturday in a panel discussion at the World

Economic Forum, was asked by an audience member to explain the

rationale behind the US government's tough economic penalties imposed

on Damascus. US President George W. Bush levied the sanctions in May

`04, signing Congressional legislation passed in `03.

 

The audience member, who described herself as a Syrian lawyer, said

Syria is a tolerant country with a large Christian population. The

country has become a safe haven for Iraqi's fleeing a grinding

guerrilla war, especially Christians escaping anti-Christian violence

that has wracked Iraq in the wake of the US-led invasion.

 

The Syrian woman said the US sanctions were a rash escalation of a

dispute that had not seen sufficient diplomacy. She said the Syrian

people were suffering as a result. " In any policy there is carrot and

stick, " the woman said. " But between the United States and Syria there

is only the stick. "

 

Mr Shays said bluntly that the United States has " huge problems " with

Syria. He said he attended the funeral of a US soldier killed in Iraq

while fighting insurgents near the Syrian border. Mr Shays suggested

that the soldier was killed because Damascus had failed to halt

anti-US insurgents from crossing into Iraq.

 

" Sanctions are hurting ordinary people, and we agree with that, " Shays

said. " We're trying to get the attention of Syria and we want to have

changes. We don't want to tell them the things we think are wrong. We

just want them to stop. " Syrian officials have said they are doing all

they can to close the country's long and remote border with Iraq and

suggested the number of infiltrators is small.

 

US military sources in Iraq have long downplayed the role of foreign

fighters in Iraq, saying they form a tiny percentage of an

overwhelmingly Iraqi insurgency. Mr Shays and another US congressman,

Sen. Gordon Smith, said that America's top commitment in the region is

to Israel.

 

" We are Israel's strong ally, " Mr Shays said in an interview with The

Associated Press. " It would be foolish for people to think that

somehow we are neutral. "