Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: DuckTapeSunroof who wrote (294558)	9/9/2002 12:21:30 PM
From: DrGrabow	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769667

Wait, there's more. BEIRUT, LEBANON – Syria is showing increasing signs of unease at Washington's plans to topple Saddam Hussein in neighboring Iraq, fearing it would be the first step in a wave of regime changes in the Middle East to suit US and Israeli interests. As momentum builds for an attack on Iraq, analysts say that continued diplomatic and political pressure on Syria is backfiring by pushing Damascus closer to Baghdad. They cite the Syria Accountability Act, being considered by Congress, which seeks to impose sanctions on Damascus unless certain conditions are met. Squeezing Syria has usually had the opposite effect to the one intended. "Damascus always works the opposite way when pressure is applied to it abroad, especially from the United States," says Murhaf Jouejati, a specialist on Syria at the Middle East Institute in Washington. The strategic alliance between the US and Israel in the early 1980s pushed Syria closer to the Soviet Union, and the Turkish-Israeli military alliance in 1996 prompted Damascus to begin restoring ties with Baghdad. "What Washington unwittingly is doing is throwing Damascus into the arms of Baghdad. And that is counter-productive for the United States," Dr. Jouejati says. Syria and Iraq, which are both ruled by rival branches of the secular Baath Party, have spent the past five years patching up decades of mutual hostility. Although there is little love for Saddam Hussein in Damascus, the ailing Syrian economy has grown heavily dependent on Iraq. Trade between Syria and Iraq – through the United Nations oil-for-food program – is estimated to have achieved $1 billion in 2001, double the amount from the previous year. Syria is alleged by the West to have earned another $1 billion from illegally imported oil from Iraq, in breach of UN sanctions. Damascus and Baghdad agreed last week to establish joint industrial projects, totaling some $500 million. csmonitor.com