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Source: http://www.forbes.com/2009/02/11/syria-assad-sanctions-opinions-columnists_0212_claudia_rosett.html
U.S. Commerce Department Waives Syria Sanctions
[Forbes] Claudia Rosett - The U.S. Department of Commerce has approved a license allowing Boeing to go ahead with major overhauls of two 747 jetliners belonging to Syria's state-owned Syrian Arab Airlines. This aircraft repair looks like the leading edge of a U.S. diplomatic overhaul to try to wean Syria away from Iran and create a new atmosphere of "mutual respect" between Washington and Damascus. There is talk that Obama will soon be sending an ambassador to Syria to fill the spot left empty since George W. Bush pulled out the previous ambassador in 2005. The fundamental problem with Syria is the terror-based character of the Syrian regime. Assad runs a dynastic, tyrannical system, which has survived for decades not by making peace, but by making trouble. One under-reported aspect of Syria's current regime is its busy partnership with North Korea. Assad's government enlisted the help of North Korea to build a secret, illicit plutonium factory on the Euphrates (the nearly completed nuclear reactor destroyed by an Israeli air strike in September 2007).