WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush (news - web sites) plans on Tuesday to impose economic sanctions on Syria for allegedly supporting terrorism and failing to stop guerrillas from entering Iraq (news - web sites), people involved in the deliberations said.
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.
The White House told key lawmakers late on Monday the announcement would be made on Tuesday, congressional aides said, but a White House spokesman declined to comment on the timing.
Some lawmakers had complained that Bush appeared to be appeasing Damascus by not implementing the penalties under the so-called Syria Accountability Act passed last year.
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 Bush administration defended the delay, saying it needed time to devise a plan that would have a "real impact" on Damascus.
Officials said the administration was also concerned the sanctions could worsen tensions in the Middle East and wanted to wait until after a series of recent high-level meetings in Washington with Arab and Israeli leaders.
"We want to see Syria change their behavior," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. "These are serious matters."
SYRIAN THREAT
Bush's move against Syria would stand in contrast to his decision to ease sanctions on Libya as a reward for the scrapping of its nuclear arms programs. Bush has seized on Libya's pledge to abandon the weapons as an example for other countries, including Syria.
Some members of the U.S. administration believe Syria has centrifuges that can purify uranium for use in atom bombs, though the intelligence community is divided on the issue, diplomats and experts said last week.
U.S. officials have warned that Abdul Qadeer Khan, the Pakistani scientist who sold nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea (news - web sites), had other customers. Western diplomats in Vienna said some Bush administration officials believe Syria is one of them.
The Syria Accountability Act bars trade in items that could be used in weapons programs until the administration certifies Syria is not supporting terrorist groups, has withdrawn personnel from Lebanon, is not developing unconventional weapons and has secured its border with Iraq.
The law also authorized Bush to impose at least two other sanctions from a menu that includes barring U.S. businesses from investing in Syria, restricting travel in the United States by Syrian diplomats and banning exports of U.S. products other than food and medicine to Syria.
Syria says its support for the Palestinian and Lebanese groups it calls freedom fighters is merely political and their only activity in Syria is speaking to media.
Allegations from Washington during last year's Iraq war that Damascus was helping aides of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) to flee raised concern in the Arab world that Syria could be the next target of the U.S. war on terror.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld complained earlier this year that Syria was not doing enough to stop guerrillas entering Iraq.
With trade between the two countries a modest $300 million or less annually, the sanctions would have more political than economic effects.
Wednesday, 10 September 2003, Aleppo, Syria
80 degrees, sunny
Up early - 8:30 AM. After a great nights sleep in our blissful hotel, it's time to visit the famous Aleppo Souk. First, Naeif and I slap on our dishdashis, and roll out to the courtyard for breakfast. It's typical Syrian fare of hardboiled eggs, olives, tomatoes . . . you get the idea. We are sitting near a group of guys at breakfast, and we later find out they're Dutch - and all excited about shopping in the souk for goodies.
The souk is stuffed with all kinds of cool things - and this souk is way more organized than Souk Hamidiyyah in Damascus. The quality of the merchandise seems more consistent too - more good stuff and less crap.
Off the main souk, is another, more touristic souk, filled to the brim with handcrafts, jewelry, furniture and artifacts. Here, we find the "Syrian Charles Bronson", a handsome guy presiding over a shop stuffed to the gills with lamps and artifacts. Naeif begins one of many episodes at expert negotiations, arabstyle.
After all that shopping, we're hungry. Naeif leads us thru the streets to find a restaurant he once visited before and liked. Finally, he locates it, and we enter - it's a crazy, shabby restaurant and seemingly very popular. Water begins to drip on Diana, so we rearrange our seating, and then the food comes out. It's really delicious - the best food we've had before. We all really like Aleppo a LOT.
After our meal, we meet the owner. At his table, there's a scruffy looking guy picking at his food. Suddenly, he perks up, and speaks perfect english - invites us to join him for a cappucino. He's a professor, and teaches English. From his appearance, he looked like a homeless person to me, but he's great. The owner is a nice muslim guy who owns a couple of restaurants, and he encourages Americans to try Syria as a travel destination.
After that, it's time to find Lawrence of Arabia's Baron hotel for drinks. We take a crazy cab ride aided by the Rough Guide, and finally find it. It's still there, but is above a section of true tourista crap. It's predictably modest, shabbily elegant. Clearly, this hotel has seen better days, but it seems clean. They immediately offer to show us Lawrence's room once we express interest, but there is not a lot of evidence that he stayed here. The actual room that he stayed in seems to have been remodeled by Holiday Inn, and is quite forgettable. We all opt to hang out in the bar area, which we surmise ol' Lawrence probably spent more time patronizing anyway. Gin n' tonics for all, smashing! We do a few tourist photos, and find other Lawrence fans, with the same ideas we have.
After the Baron, we delve back into the souk. Ended up that we all bought lamps from the well-organized "handcraft souk" which is off to the side of the more chaotic "regular" souk. We'd gone back to our Charles Bronson guy, and Naeif proceeded to apparently take food out of the man's children's mouths with his Olympic level negotiating style. We pay something like US $10 each for the lamps, and everyone is (seemingly) happy. Naeif and I pick up our Syrian pillow sofas that they've packed up for us. (I discover later after we get home, that they've included a woven wall hanging gift for us. Those sweet Syrians . . .)
Time to visit a coffeeshop now. This one's right outside the souk, with a great view of the large citadel that's smack in the middle of Aleppo. We have a tea or two there, but soon we want to return to our cool hotel, and hang out under the stars in the courtyard - drinking Arak once again.
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