Syria: US Sanctions Renewal a Disappointment

Obama: Syria an 'Extraordinary Threat'

Syrian officials today expressed disappointment with the US announcement that they were intending to renew sanctions against the nation for another year, coming at the same time the US had been pushing for improved ties with the nation.

According to Deputy Foreign Minister Faysal Mekdad, the US has failed to live up to its recent promises toward Syria, while a state newspaper warned that the US move was reinforcing regional hostilities.

Obama Administration policy towards Syria has been more than a little confusing in recent weeks, with the State Department touting progress then cheering as President Obama lashes them for providing Scud missiles to Hezbollah. The State Department then admitted they didn’t have any actual proof that the Scud claim was true at all.

When announcing the sanctions renewal, President Obama accused Syria of “pursuit of weapons of mass destruction” and claimed that they “pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy and economy of the United States.”

How any of this is remotely true is unclear, but the accusations are lifted virtually verbatim from the last renewal, and the one before that, to the point where accusing Syria of being an “extraordinary threat” has become the default position of any US government.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.