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U.S. Policy on Syria Moves Toward Regime Change

(New York Sun) Eli Lake - American policy toward the world's remaining Ba'athist government is approaching support for regime change. President Bush's top foreign policy advisers met last week to discuss the government of Bashar al-Assad, mulling a tougher policy that would allow American forces or encourage Iraqi soldiers to pursue terrorists that escape to Syria from Iraq for safe haven, according to two administration officials. At the State Department, the Bureau of Near East Affairs and the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor have asked Congress for explicit legal authority to fund liberal opposition parties inside Syria. Later this month, the White House is expected to apply tougher sanctions to Syria in accordance with the 2003 Syria Accountability Act. Last Friday, when envoys from the Arab League arrived for a State Department briefing on President Bush's meetings with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, Syria's representative was turned away and told his government was not invited.
2005-06-09 00:00:00
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