The European Union “has denounced” the Syria Accountability Act supported by Tom DeLay and passed by the House International Relations Committee on a 33-2 vote.
The full House of Representatives, where 275 members co-sponsored the bill, is expected to pass the measure next week. The bill also has strong bipartisan support in the Senate, where the Foreign Relations Committee is set to examine the measure this month.
In acknowledging that the Bush administration had ended two years of opposition to the legislation, the White House spokesman, Scott McClellan, said, “Syria needs to change course, change its behavior, stop harboring terrorists.”
So long as the U.S. desired unfettered intervention in Iraq these proposed sanctions were opposed by the WH, but now that the troops are in place they can drop the pretense?
The European Union does not enjoy exceptional commerce with Syria, “less than 0.5 percent of total EU trade”. Their reasoning follows the concept that change comes from within and the application of outside force has the opposite effect in bringing that desired change about.
In June 2003 the European Union announced it would be ‘restricting political and cultural contacts‘ with Cuba citing escalation in human rights violations. Castro singled out Spain and Italy for spearheading the idea of imposing sanctions and charged the EU had “decided to kowtow to the U.S. government” hoping the effort “be seen as more proof of their contrition and repentance over the differences that arose over the war in Iraq between “Old Europe”- as Mr Rumsfeld called it- and the imperial Nazi-fascist government which is trying to impose a dictatorship on the rest of the world.”
While the BBC reported Cuba is expected to ride out whatever sanctions are imposed it will be painful:
EU accounts for 34% of its foreign commerce.
Also responsible for most of the 1.7 million foreigners who visited in 2002
What pain will Syria feel? From the IHT article:
That stance underscored a deep divide between the United States and much of Europe. Members of the U.S. Congress said the sanctions vote reflected a sense that Syria had gone so far in its support of terror that only strong measures made sense. “It has become increasingly clear which side Syria’s government has chosen in the war on terror,” said Representative Tom DeLay of Texas, the House majority leader. But EU-Syrian talks for a political-economic association agreement are continuing, with the next round set for Oct. 15-16 in Brussels.
European negotiators have concluded similar accords with every other non-EU country in the Euro-Mediterranean region, said another EU spokesman, Diego De Ojeda. Patten, the external relations commissioner, urged Syria last month not to delay much longer. Outstanding issues in the talks include a clause on respect of human rights, which De Ojeda called “nonnegotiable,” and a clause on rejecting terrorism. De Ojeda acknowledged in a phone interview that enforcing such provisions was not easy, but noted that the EU hoped to be able to provide financial rewards to those Euro-Mediterranean partners that show positive results. “If there is a deterioration, a flagrant deterioration, then we can suspend or rescind the agreement, but that we haven’t done,” he said, “partly because change must come from within, and partly because at the end of the day we do not believe in policies of isolation.”
It would be difficult for me to accept that the EU believes commerce must exist before sanctions can have an impact considering Castro’s reaction to the June announcement. I suspect the EU is stuggling to maintain some sort of independent presence in the commerce of the region and the U.S. in alignment with Israel is doing whatever they can within their power to maintain tight control.
What these ‘free’ traders should be addressing is the excuse for Israel’s strike against Syria and the reasons this woman strapped a bomb to her body.
The Washington Post published this human interest piece mentioning Hanadi Jaradat’s reaction to the day she witnessed the assassination of her brother and cousin at their Jenin home.
What the article doesn’t go into detail about is that these assassinations occurred during two weeks that were particularly violent.:
Israeli occupying forces have escalated hostile military actions against Palestinians, especially extra-judicial assassinations and have continued to conduct illegal actions and human rights violations against Palestinian civilians, including collective punishment, shelling of and incursions into Palestinian areas, house demolitions and agricultural land leveling. This week 12-18 June 2003, 17 Palestinians, mostly civilians, including 2 children and a woman, were killed by Israeli occupying forces.
In a continuation of the policy of extra-judicial assassination officially adopted by Israeli occupying forces against Palestinian political and field activists of the Intifada, this week in the space of 24 hours, Israeli occupying forces carried out 3 assassinations, which left dead 11 Palestinians, including 3 who were allegedly wanted by Israeli authorities. One of the victims was killed together with his pregnant wife and child. Two of the assassinations took place on Thursday, 12 June 2003. In addition, 3 civilians, including a child, died from wounds they had sustained in previous assassination attempts. This brings the number of Palestinians killed in assassination attempts carried out by Israeli occupying forces in the past two weeks to 30, including 23 civilian bystanders. In addition, dozens of others were wounded. Despite international criticism and condemnation of Israeli war crimes, in particular extra-judicial assassinations, the Israeli government and its occupying forces escalated these crimes, claiming that they would deter Palestinian armed attacks against Israeli targets. The Israeli Chief of Staff Moshe Yalon confirmed this escalation and was quoted on the Arabic website of the Israeli daily Yediot Aharanot’s, as saying that in order to bring about security, Israel has been forced to act pre-emptively and that the policy would increase political pressure on the various Palestinian factions, leading to enhanced security for Israel.
What do you expect from people who have nothing to lose but their fear of being murdered? Oh, excuse me. Of course these ‘results’ are in fact exactly what are desired.