Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, who recently returned from a Middle East trip that included stops in Damascus and Gaza, called yesterday for loosening sanctions on Syria, which he praised for opening a stock market and sending an ambassador to Iraq."Loosening certain sanctions in exchange for verifiable changes in behavior can actually benefit US businesses," Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told a packed auditorium at the Brookings Institution. "The sanctions can always be tightened again if Syria backtracks."
The Bush administration shunned Syria for more than four years, accusing the regime of fostering the insurgency in Iraq, meddling in Lebanon's affairs by assassinating its elected leaders, and supporting anti-Israeli militant groups Hezbollah and Hamas.
HT Drew