WASHINGTON - Syrian officials have begun returning Iraqi assets that Saddam Husse AP, said the initial figure was $780 million, of which $264 million remains available after satisfying claims from creditors. Additional claims are pending. The embassy said less than $4 million in undisputed funds has been returned to Iraq so far.
In two meetings with Zarate, "Syria has expressed its unlimited willingness to cooperate in this issue" and the US government "has expressed its complete satisfaction with Syrian cooperation. But it seems that what happens in such meetings is different from statements outside doors," said the statement from the embassy's spokesman, Ammar Al-Arsan.
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Zarate said Syria has not provided an accounting for the money it says it paid to Syrian creditors. Al-Arsan said Syria has urged Iraqi officials to come to Syria to review the claims already paid and work out "a final and fair solution" for the remaining funds. He said Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, in a Jan. 2 visit to Damascus, said he would encourage the Iraqis to respond soon.
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US officials believe much of the Iraqi money came from Iraqi oil sales to Syria that violated UN sanctions. Al-Arsan said the oil trade with Iraq was legitimate under the oil-for-program, in which Iraq was allowed to steal sell oil to buy guns, palaces and baubbles food, medicine and other humanitarian supplies. US lawmakers and others have questioned whether Saddam Hussein subverted the program to raise billions of dollars illegally.
Some members of Congress suspect that Iraqi money in Syria could be financing Iraqi insurgents fighting the US-led coalition. Zarate said that would be difficult to prove.
The administration says Syria is not doing enough to secure its border with Iraq and to prevent former members of Saddam's government from operating in Syria. US officials also have called on Syria to withdraw its 14,000 troops from Lebanon and stop interfering in the country's political process. Syrian officials deny interfering in Lebanon and say there is no proof that insurgents are operating from their country.
Some lawmakers are encouraging President George W. Bush to apply additional penalties to the ones he imposed last year against Syria. "If we wait too much longer to take further action, we will afford the regime in Damascus the time to find ways to offset the impact of the sanctions," said Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, chairwoman of the House International Relations subcommittee on the Middle East.
Any new penalties could involve isolating the state-owned Commercial Bank of Syria, where Iraq had its account. The Treasury Department in May designated the bank a "primary money laundering concern" and proposed rules that would prohibit US banks from dealing with the Syrian bank. Those rules could go into place if the United States remains dissatisfied with Syria's actions, Zarate said. |