Syria shrugs off U.S. sanctions threat

2006-09-29

Richard Moore

   ³A U.N. investigation said the assassination could not have
    been carried out without the knowledge of Syrian security
    officials.²

What they actually found is that the assassination had the earmarks of an 
intelligence agency.

Since they were unwilling to consider the CIA or Mossad as perps, they simply 
named Syria as the 'only possibility'. When propaganda is so shallow one wonders
how it can be so successful.

rkm

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Original source URL:
http://asia.news.yahoo.com/060928/3/2qkjq.html

Thursday September 28, 8:45 PM
Syria shrugs off U.S. sanctions threat

DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Syria will keep supporting Hamas and Hizbollah despite U.S.
threats to impose more sanctions on the country, a government newspaper said on 
Thursday.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice this week threatened to toughen 
sanctions Washington imposed on Syria in 2004, mainly for its support of the two
Arab Muslim movements, which Washington regards as "terrorist organisations", 
and ask other countries to join in.

"Syria is more determined to stand by the resistance until the land is liberated
and Israel is defeated," an editorial in the Baath newspaper said.

"If the U.S. administration is serious about combating terrorism then it should 
play a constructive role in pushing forward the peace process on the basis of 
U.N. resolutions 242 and 338," the newspaper said.

The UN resolutions, passed decades ago, emphasise the inadmissibility of the 
acquisition of territory by war, call on Israel to withdraw from Arab land it 
has occupied since 1967 and negotiations to reach a "just and durable peace" in 
the Middle East.

"Absolute U.S. support for Israel is one of the main causes behind regional 
instability. The United States has helped Israel in the United Nations stand 
against any proposal for a comprehensive settlement of the Arab-Israeli 
conflict," the newspaper said.

Rice said the United States was going "to have to look at tougher measures if 
Syria continues to be on the path that it's on."

Relations between the United States, Israel's chief ally, and Syria have been 
deteriorating for years, especially after last year's assassination in Beirut of
former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, who was friendly with 
Washington.

A U.N. investigation said the assassination could not have been carried out 
without the knowledge of Syrian security officials. Damascus denies involvement.

Diplomats in Damascus say Washington has been angered by the Syrian response to 
an attack carried out by Muslim militants on the U.S embassy in Damascus on 
September 12.

Syrian security forces foiled the attack, but Syrian officials later said U.S. 
policies in the region and support for Israel invited it.

In May 2004, Washington banned a number of U.S. exports to Syria, severed 
banking relations with the country's largest bank and barred Syrian flights to 
and from the United States.

Copyright © 2005 Reuters Limited.
-- 

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