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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Syria under US pressure to clean house |
| 2004-03-12 |
| The black gates of the headquarters of Hamas, the militant Islamic group fighting Israel, are shut tight on Nablus Street in a densely packed Palestinian refugee neighborhood in Damascus. Locals say the complex - more apartment building than office - has fallen quiet since the Syrian government, under U.S. pressure, ordered Hamas and other Palestinian organizations to lower their profile. The only telltale sign is a poster of Sheik Ahmed Yassin, Hamas’ spiritual leader, plastered on a cement wall opposite the gates. Whether the change is more than cosmetic could be critical to a looming showdown between the Bush administration and Syria. The White House, charging that Hamas and other groups use Syria to plan attacks in Israel and the Palestinian territories, is debating whether to impose tougher new diplomatic and economic sanctions on Syria. In an effort to avoid being pushed further into the group of countries that Washington describes as pariahs, the Syrian government recently has improved its cooperation with the CIA against al-Qaida and against Arab fighters trying to sneak across its border into Iraq, U.S. intelligence officials said. "There’s been some cooperation. It’s certainly not what you’d like, but it’s better than it’s been," said a senior U.S. official. The improved Syrian cooperation has prompted a debate within the Bush administration about whether to impose tougher sanctions now. Officials in the CIA and the State Department argue that further isolating Syria with diplomatic sanctions could kill the chances of persuading the Syrians to cooperate more fully. Some officials in the Pentagon and the White House argue that force is the only language the Syrian regime understands. The Syrians, for their part, are trying to end their isolation from the global economy while remaining a bastion of Arab opposition to Israel. Palestinian representatives in Damascus deny that they’re plotting terrorist attacks. The offices’ only function, they say, was public affairs - to promote the Palestinian cause in the media. Both sides agree on one thing: The offices’ closure, demanded last summer by Secretary of State Colin Powell, has had little effect. "The political movement is there, whether there are offices are not," said Ali Badwan, 42, a Syrian-born Palestinian and member of Yasser Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organization. The offices were closed "just to please the Americans," said Hamdan Hamdan, a Palestinian writer and former member of Syria’s ruling Baath Party. Whatever can be accomplished in offices can also be accomplished in Damascus’ ubiquitous coffee shops, said Hamdan, who said he isn’t allied with the militant groups. U.S. officials charge that while Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government cut the electricity and phone lines for groups such as Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, it has allowed militants to remain in Syria, using cell phones and generators. The charge that Syria supports terrorism, including backing the Hezbollah Islamic militant organization in southern Lebanon, is just one of Washington’s beefs. The White House says Assad’s government is developing weapons of mass destruction, has allowed foreign fighters to cross into Iraq to attack U.S. troops and has refused to turn over assets that belong to the new Iraqi government. President Bush must choose at least two sanctions from half a dozen, ranging from mild measures such as prohibiting Syrian commercial airline flights to a ban on all U.S. exports to Syria, other than food and medicine. Powell, signaling the administration’s frustration with Syria, told Knight Ridder in an interview last month that, "at best, their steps have been half-hearted." In Damascus, Syrian officials and intellectuals invariably portray the U.S. moves as a result of pressure from Israel. Syria and Israel are technically still at war. They dismiss the impact of the sanctions. "They will not affect Syria economically. ... It is symbolic," said Mounzer Mously, a former parliament member and veteran Baathist who reflects the official line. Mously echoed the desire that almost everyone interviewed in Syria expresses: good relations with Washington. "America is a superpower now. It is stupidity for us to be an enemy of the United States," he said. The denials are unlikely to mollify the Bush administration. "If Syria chooses to ignore all facts and ignore the positions that we and others have taken, then there’s not much prospect for our relationship," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Thursday. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |