Congressman Urges Syria to Quit Lebanon or Face Heftier Sanctions

U.S. Congressman Tom Lantos, an architect of America's sanctions against the Assad regime, has called from Damascus for a Syrian pullout from Lebanon and for a severance of alleged links with terrorism.

Lantos told reporters he made his double-barreled call during talks he held with Foreign Minister Farouk Al Sharaa in the Syrian capital on Wednesday. The call, which could herald upgraded anti-Syria sanctions, was highlighted by the Beirut press on Thursday.

"As a friend of the Syrian people I want to see the leaders of this great nation, the modern incarnation of one of the great civilizations, make the right choice," said Lantos, who is on a tour of Middle Eastern capitals. "So far the Syrian leaders have resisted those choices."

Lantos, the senior Democrat on the House International Relations Committee, added: "I urged my friend Foreign Minister Sharaa to get his nation on the right side of the 21st century. I urged him to end Syria's association finally and totally with terrorism and WMD," or weapons of mass destruction.

President Bush imposed sanctions on May 11 against Syria, which stands accused by Washington of sponsoring terrorism, seeking to produce weapons of mass destruction, trying to destabilize Iraq and occupying Lebanon. Lantos was a strong supporter of the sanctions.

"There is no change in U.S. policy, but I hope there could be change if Syria takes the appropriate steps, which I outlined privately to President Assad during my last visit when I was here in the spring of 2003," he said Wednesday.

"I recognize some small steps that have been taken to close the Syrian-Iraqi borders for the smuggling of terrorists and terrorist weapons," he said, but charged there were still not enough well-trained border guards.

Lantos added that he had urged Sharaa "to remove Syrian troops from Lebanon and let that neighboring nation determine its own fate. I urged him to open Syria's market but more importantly to open Syrian minds by allowing the full freedom of expression and association."(Naharnet-AFP)