Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate yesterday voted 89-4 to pass a bill that would enact economic sanctions against Syria if it failed to end its suspected efforts to develop weapons of mass destruction and its alleged support for terrorist organizations (see GSN, Nov. 5).

The bill, the Syria Accountability Act, would prohibit U.S. military and dual-use exports to Syria. It would also require the president to impose at least two of six additional sanctions included the bill, such as a freeze of Syrian assets and a downgrading of U.S. diplomatic representation. The sanctions could only be lifted if the president certified that four conditions were met, including that Syria no longer provides support for terrorism, that Syria removes all military, intelligence and security personnel from Lebanon and that Syria ceases the development of biological and chemical weapons and the development and deployment of medium- and long-range ballistic missiles.

Under the Senate version of the bill, the president would have the authority to waive both the military and dual-use export ban and the additional sanctions for national security reasons. The nearly identical House version of the bill, overwhelmingly approved last month, would only allow the president to waive the six additional sanctions. According to the New York Times today, Senate supporters of the bill have said that the House would support the expanded waiver authority.

During yesterday’s debate on the bill, senators from both parties spoke in favor of the legislation, as reported in the Congressional Record.

“Had our years of entreaties to the Syrians not fallen on deaf ears, and had promises from Syria over the last several years not turned out to be little more than empty rhetoric, this bill might not have been necessary,” said Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.). 

“However, it appears to many of us that the point where we can continue to sit back and hope for Syria to change course has passed. The time has come to show Syria that continued inaction will no longer be tolerated and will come at a price,” he said.

“I do not know if this bill will motivate Damascus to cross the fence and joined the antiterror coalition of civilized nations. I suspect that to believe so would be Pollyannaish. But I do believe that the way we act today will declare to the Damascus dictatorship that there are costs to being on the wrong side of the fence in the war on terror,” Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said.

Syria today criticized the Senate’s approval of the bill, according to reports.

“The Senate voted as expected for economic and diplomatic sanctions against Syria because of its support for the resistance of the Palestinian people against the Israeli occupation,” Agence France-Presse today quoted the official SANA news agency as saying.

The four senators who voted against the bill yesterday were Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), Lincoln Chafee (R-R.I.), Michael Enzi (R-Wyo.) and Jim Jeffords (I-Vt.). During yesterday’s floor debate, Byrd said he opposed the bill because of concerns it could lead to a U.S. invasion of Syria.

“The findings, statements of policy and sense of Congress provisions in the Syria Accountability Act could be used to build a case against Syria that could too easily be hyped to imply congressional support for pre-emptive action against that rogue state,” Byrd said.