Why did the Obama administration renew sanctions against Syria? According to the Washington Post:
The revival of a transit route that officials had declared all but closed comes as the Obama administration is exploring a new diplomatic dialogue with Syria. At the same time, Washington remains concerned by Syrian activities — including ongoing support for the militant groups Hezbollah and Hamas, as well as activities involving Iraq.
On Wednesday, acting Assistant Secretary of State Jeffrey D. Feltman and National Security Council official Daniel Shapiro arrived in Syria for their second visit since Barack Obama’s inauguration as president. Two days later, however, Obama renewed U.S. sanctions against Syria, accusing Damascus of supporting terrorism in the Middle East and undermining Iraqi stability.
Then there’s little background info:
The Bush administration frequently criticized Syria for the transit of foreign fighters, suggesting that the authoritarian government of President Bashar al-Assad was involved in the traffic. But U.S. military and intelligence officials remained less certain.
“What we think right now is that we just don’t know how much their senior leaders know about the foreign fighter network,” said the senior U.S. military official, who discussed intelligence matters last week on the condition of anonymity. “As you can imagine . . . if they knew, it’s not something they would be talking about.”
“But we do think that the knowledge of these networks exists at least within the Syrian intelligence community,” he said. “What level, if it’s low or high up, we just don’t have a good gauge on.”
This dig against ex-President Bush is gratuitous. Of course the military source wasn’t specific. Even anonymously, he has to be careful about what he says. But Syria, is an authoritarian state, what are the chances that the leadership doesn’t know about the transfer of arms across its border?
Crossposted on Soccer Dad.
