President Bush plans this week to impose economic sanctions on Syria for supporting terrorism and failing to stop guerrillas from entering Iraq, people involved in the deliberations said on Monday. Congressional sources said Bush was expected to curb future investments by American energy firms in Syria and prohibit Syrian aircraft from flying into the United States. Bush was also expected either to block transactions involving the Syrian government or to ban exports to Syria of U.S. products other than food and medicine, the sources said. A White House announcement on the sanctions is planned as early as Tuesday. The move comes after lawmakers, who helped push legislation through Congress last year to sanction Syria, complained that Bush appeared to be appeasing Damascus by not implementing the penalties under the so-called Syria Accountability Act.
The lawmakers, Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Florida Republican, and Eliot Engel, a New York Democrat, said they were preparing legislation for stiffer penalties on Syria and additional measures to isolate and weaken its government. The Syria Accountability Act, passed by the House and Senate by overwhelming margins, offered Bush a menu of sanctions to punish Damascus for supporting terror groups, failing to stop guerrilla fighters from crossing into Iraq from Syria, developing chemical and perhaps biological weapons, and keeping troops in Lebanon. |