US sanctions will not affect policy, says Syria

DAMASCUS YESTERDAY condemned the fresh round of US sanctions targeting President Bashar al-Assad and six senior aides. Syrian state television declared the measures to be part of US regional strategies to “serve Israel’s interests” and said Syrian policy would not be affected.

“Any aggression against Syria is akin to US support for Israeli aggression against Syria and the Arabs,” it said.

Washington was accused of trying to pressurise Syria into breaking relations with Iran, Hizbullah and Hamas, regarded by Israel as major antagonists.

In a letter to congressional leaders, President Barack Obama said he issued the sanctions in response to the Syrian government’s “continuous escalation of violence against the people of Syria”. He mentioned specifically, “attacks on protesters, arrests and harassment of protesters and political activists, and repression of democratic change”.

Among those on the list are vice-president Farouk al-Sharaa, prime minister Adel Safar, and defence minister Ali Habib. Haitham al-Maleh said: “Members of the regime are now under siege.”

But former US ambassador to Damascus, Richard Murphy, said financial freezes and embargoes will have little or no affect on the regime.

Washington's message to Dr Assad to end the crackdown on protests and reform coincided with an interview published in al-Watan, a private daily, in which the president admitted mistakes had been made by the security services during the revolt which began in mid-March.

Dr Assad also said: “Syria has overcome the crisis it went through and unrest is coming to an end.” His assessment seemed to be borne out by the fact that the countrywide national strike called by the opposition for Wednesday was largely ignored, with schools, offices and businesses operating normally in Damascus and most major cities. In the southern town of Deraa where the protests began, the shops and schools were closed.

A western informant who arrived in Beirut from Damascus on Tuesday said the situation in the metropolitan area was “almost back to normal” and revealed that reports about shelling and power cuts to the capital’s suburbs and satellite towns had been exaggerated.

Residents of the northeastern Lebanese town of Wadi Khaled have appealed to the Beirut authorities to provide food and other aid for hundreds of Syrians who have fled fighting in the area just across the border. According to Syrians making the crossing clashes have subsided and the situation is calm.

Lebanese sources say that smuggling drugs and arms provides a major source of income for inhabitants of the towns on both sides of the border.

In Tal Kalakh, a Syrian town of about 70,000, one commentator observed that the men were “defending their livelihoods” when they took up arms against the security forces and army seeking to disrupt the lucrative trade in weapons and ammunition.

While weapons of war have always been widely available in Lebanon, the authorities in Syria had banned the import and possession of such arms and tightly control licensing of hunting guns.