Downing Street Says

Asked the Prime Minister’s reaction to the sanctions which the US had imposed on Syria, the PMOS said that we expected Syria to take seriously our concerns about WMD and their attitude towards terrorism and human rights. In particular, we expected Syria to take a constructive approach to the situation in Iraq and work with us to restore stability and aid Iraq reconstruction. In our policy towards Syria, we clearly had similar objectives and concerns to the US. However, we were pursuing these through a policy of critical and constructive engagement. We believed that this allowed us to encourage and support reform, while talking frankly and robustly about issues of concern. How the US addressed its relations with Syria was entirely a matter for the US. Asked if the UK was also considering imposing sanctions on Syria, the PMOS said that sanctions were a matter for the EU as a whole, not for individual Governments.

2 Comments »

Here’s the actual text from the President’s executive order.

—–

I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, hereby determine that the actions of the Government of Syria in supporting terrorism, continuing its occupation of Lebanon, pursuing weapons of mass destruction and missile programs, and undermining United States and international efforts with respect to the stabilization and reconstruction of Iraq constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States and hereby declare a national emergency to deal with that threat.

—–

It reads like a message from the Church of the Latter Day Morons, doesn’t it? At some point we have to stop fighting and start laughing at these bad ideas from another planet.

Perhaps the Syrians should not have bothered to vote for UN 1441, if they get treated like this anyway afterwards. At least it’ll make it harder for the US to threaten the votes out of countries in the future, since they so clearly renage on their deal.
Comment by Julian — 16 May 2004 on 12:50 pm | Link
I’m certainly happy to see that the EU’s response to the US’s bizarre actions was the immediate sending of a group of trade negotiators and diplomats, almost on cue, and in opposition to the US action.
Comment by Gregory Block — 17 May 2004 on 10:04 am | Link

RSS feed for comments on this post.

Post a public comment

Name (required)
E-mail (required)
(You must give an email address, but it will not be displayed to the public.)
Website
(You may give your website, and it will be displayed to the public.)

Comments:

This is not a way of contacting the Prime Minister. If you would like to contact the Prime Minister, go to the 10 Downing Street official site.

Privacy note: Shortly after posting, your name and comment will be displayed on the site. This means that people searching for your name on the Internet will be able to find and read your comment.

Original PMOS briefings are © Crown Copyright. Crown Copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen's Printer for Scotland. Click-use licence number C02W0004089. Material is reproduced from the original 10 Downing Street source, but may not be the most up-to-date version of the briefings, which might be revised at the original source. Users should check with the original source in case of revisions. Comments are © Copyright contributors. Everything else is © Copyright Downing Street Says.

» Wednesday, May 12, 2004

Syria

2 Comments »

Post a public comment

Search

Supported by

Recent Briefings

Archives

Links

Syndicate (RSS/XML)

Credits

Enquiries