See-saw sanctions

Will Congress tighten sanctions or end them, asks Bassel Oudat in Damascus

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A draft resolution was proposed to US Congress this week that calls for tightening sanctions against Syria, Iran and North Korea. The draft states that its primary goal is to strengthen existing legislation on sanctions against those who support the governments of Syria, Iran, and North Korea in acts that are in contravention of regulations barring the spread of nuclear arms. It further calls on the secretary of state and secretary of homeland security to deny US entry visas to officials in these countries' governments and to the directors and stakeholders of foreign companies close to them. The draft resolution even calls for barring air flights to and from these countries.

Yet Damascus has read the draft in a different light, and Syrian official circles have expressed the belief that this could be an opportunity for the US Congress to "carefully reevaluate" the Syria Accountability Act with the aim of annulling it due to the "change in the circumstances that had led to its adoption."

Relations between Damascus and Washington grew tense following the American war on Iraq and the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Al-Hariri. The United States imposed political and economic sanctions on Syria, and president George W Bush signed the Syria Accountability Act passed by Congress. This law comprised economic sanctions against Syria and barred American companies from exporting to Syria any product with 10 per cent US content. These actions were taken in response to an accusation against Syria that it was undermining security in Iraq and Lebanon and supporting Palestinian "terrorist movements", as well as active in arms programmes in cooperation with Iran and North Korea.

Damascus viewed the Syria Accountability Act as an "arbitrary and unjustifiable law", and considered it to have been "promulgated to please Israel," a "political mistake that is not in the interest of the United States or Syria," and asked the United States to reconsider it.

The United States demanded that Syria stop supporting terrorism, suspend programmes for weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles, end the occupation of Lebanon, and clamp down on the smuggling of arms and fighters to Iraq. It also demanded that Syria return to the negotiations table with Israel to reach a peace agreement without waiting for a comprehensive resolution to strife in the region.

When Syria did not comply, the United States began imposing a long series of sanctions against Syrian officials, civilians, and military figures, ranging from the freezing of their funds to the cutting off of all relations with them. In December 2004, it prohibited dealings with some relatives of President Al-Assad, and in January 2005 it placed a ban on communications with the head of military intelligence Assef Shawkat (brother-in-law to President Al-Assad) because he was considered "among the primary planners of Syria's control of Lebanon" and it was believed that he had been a "primary contributor to the planning of terrorist acts against Israel" and had "supported terrorist organisations".

In July 2005, the sanctions were widened to include other top leaders, including interior minister General Ghazi Kanaan, who committed suicide in his office two years ago. The US Treasury stated that they played a "primary role in Syria's ongoing policy of undermining stability in Lebanon", and described these sanctions as a "warning to anyone else who follows their steps and uses intimidation and violence to undermine the legitimate political process in Lebanon".

Then American sanctions were extended even further to include companies and institutions whose funds were frozen and dealings with whom were prohibited. The United States hoped these sanctions would stop the transfer of arms, including possible missile systems and weapons of mass destruction, from Iran and Korea to Syria and Hizbullah. They prohibited US companies to offer any aid to Syria or sign any export deals with it. The US Department of Defense justified all this by reference to vague "trustworthy evidence" that the blacklisted companies were involved in illegal operations.

At the time, a Syrian source stated that these sanctions "would not have any serious effect on the state of the Syrian economy or military, as Syrian military imports from the United States are rare and do not constitute more than a few spare parts and some secondary aid."

In March 2006, the United States issued a resolution demanding that American financial institutions cut all relations with the government- owned Syrian trade bank, on the charge that it was transferring funds to terrorist organisations and laundering money. The US said that the bank was "being used by terrorists to transfer money and for the laundering of returns on the smuggling of Iraqi oil."

Syria dismissed the latest American measures to freeze the funds of Syrian officials and other influential figures and to bar all dealings with them. Media consultant to the office of the Syrian President Saber Falhuz told Al-Ahram Weekly that "in general there are no Syrian funds or economic interests that the United States can put pressure on or influence, for American-Syrian economic relations are practically non-existent." He further suggests that Syrian officials don't have any funds in the United States for it to freeze, and that the United States is playing an "obvious game" that aims to "harm Syria's reputation through individuals and officials." Falhuz stresses that these sanctions won't affect Syria since commercial trade between the two countries does not exceed $300 million.

Economist Said Muqbil told the Weekly that "despite the symbolic value of the sanctions, their effect on the Syrian economy has been great." Muqbil says that the American economic boycott and refusal to deal with Syrian banks has "affected the entire Syrian economy and paralysed several sectors, for anything produced at least partly by American companies (even if located outside the United States) is barred from being imported, including spare parts. This is not to mention the difficulty of transferring institutional funds from one country to another without going through American banks."

"Some Syrian airplanes are out of service due to the lack of spare parts, and some electricity generating plants are suffering major problems for the same reasons," he adds. "Transferring funds to and from Syria requires taking long and insecure routes due to the American ban on dealing with the most important Syrian bank, and this is not to mention the significant effect of the sanctions on the oil sector."

The American sanctions on Syria are a form of pressure for it to "change its behaviour" in the region, but despite clear efforts to address Western criticisms in recent months, the Syrians still don't know if their behaviour is considered to have changed or if they remain in the eyes of America part of the "axis of evil and terrorism". What happens this month in Congress should be a sign of what Syria has become in the view of the United States.