Agencies

CAIRO, 10 October 2003 — The Arab League warned yesterday that an eventual US decision to impose sanctions on Syria would “increase tension in the region.”

Such a decision would “make chances for peace more remote and block any serious dialogue between the United States and Syria,” the Arab League said in a statement.

The White House lifted its opposition to a resolution, adopted Wednesday by a US congressional committee, which calls for sanctions against Syria based on accusations it supports terrorism, making it likely to pass in the House of Representatives.

The move which comes “just after the Israeli aggression against Syria raises questions about the issue of the double campaign targeting Syria,” from both the United States and Israel, the statement said.

The House International Relations Committee voted Wednesday in favor of diplomatic and economic sanctions. The Bush administration said it would no longer oppose legislation allowing sanctions against Syria.

Syria blasted the prospect of US sanctions, but Israel, accused by Syria of being behind the sanctions moves, welcomed them.

“The American decision is the result of an Israeli campaign against Syria which echoed the hawks in the American administration,” said the official Ath-Thawra daily.

“All the decisions of these (US) leaders are taken with a view to serving Israel, its policies and its aggressive aims,” the paper said.

Israel welcomed the proposed step. “The United States is going to make Syria suffer the consequences of its refusal to shut down the headquarters of Palestinian terrorist organizations in Damascus, from where the orders originate to launch attacks on Israel,” said a high-ranking official, requesting anonymity.

In a meeting in Damascus with UN Middle East coordinator Terje Roed-Larsen, Syrian President Bashar Assad hit out at what he called the “war government” of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. “The Sharon government is a war government which cannot survive without starting wars,” Bashar was quoted as saying by the official news agency SANA.

The Syrian president and Roed-Larsen held talks focused on Israel’s airstrike last Sunday on what the Jewish state described as a Palestinian training camp near Damascus, a claim denied by Syria.