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Assad Criticizes New U.S. Sanctions on Syria
Syrian President Bashar Assad today criticized the U.S. decision to impose economic sanctions against his nation and said that he would not expel Palestinian militant groups, according to the Associated Press (see GSN, May 12). “We do not have any reaction,” Assad said when asked about the new sanctions. “Not because that does not affect us, but we do not know so far how they will affect us.” The European Union has decided to ignore the new sanctions and is expected to send a high-level trade delegation to Syria this weekend, AP reported. Assad said today that he would not comply with U.S. demands to expel members of Palestinian militant groups such as Hamas. While the United States views such groups as terrorist organizations, Syria views them as legitimate political movements, according to AP. “If you ask them to go, where could they go?” Assad said. “They have to go back to their land and Israel could put them in jail. ... We don’t expel people. They should go back home,” he said. There is also no evidence that foreign fighters are crossing from Syria into Iraq to battle U.S. forces, Assad said. “We have no response [from the United States] to the request to give us one passport, one name, one evidence of that. So far, we haven’t received anything,” he said (Laura Myers, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, May 13). Meanwhile, a spokesman for British Prime Minister Tony Blair said yesterday that the United Kingdom shares the U.S. concerns over Syria’s suspected WMD efforts and ties to terrorism, according to Agence France-Presse. “We have concerns about WMD, terrorism, human rights and cooperation over Iraq. We expect Syria to take these concerns seriously,” the spokesman said (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, May 12).
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