- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President
Bush plans this week to impose economic sanctions on Syria for allegedly
supporting terrorism and failing to stop guerrillas from entering Iraq,
people involved in the deliberations said on Monday.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- A White House announcement on the sanctions could be
made as early as Tuesday, the sources said, but a White House spokesman
declined to comment on the timing.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- The Bush administration defended the delay, saying it
needed time to devise a plan that would have a "real impact"
on Damascus.
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- 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.
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- "We want to see Syria change their behavior,"
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. "These are serious matters."
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- SYRIAN THREAT
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- 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.
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- 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, had other customers. Western diplomats in Vienna said some Bush
administration officials believe Syria is one of them.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- Allegations from Washington during last year's Iraq war
that Damascus was helping aides of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein
to flee raised concern in the Arab world that Syria could be the next target
of the U.S. war on terror.
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- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld complained earlier
this year that Syria was not doing enough to stop guerrillas entering Iraq.
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- With trade between the two countries a modest $300 million
or less annually, the sanctions would have more political than economic
effects.
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