The U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to impose economic and diplomatic sanctions on Syria, which the United States accuses of sponsoring terrorism, but gave U.S. President Bush broad power to waive the penalties.

The Senate passed the bill 89-4, following similar action by a nearly unanimous House of Representatives in October. The vote came amid rising tension with Damascus, which Washington also accuses of occupying Lebanon and failing to secure its border with Iraq while allowing anti-American fighters to make their way there.

The Senate changed the bill to give Bush authority to waive all of the penalties if he deems it in the national interest. The House must approve the change before the measure will go to Bush.

The White House had resisted the bipartisan push in Congress to impose penalties on Damascus, but lifted its objections after it accused Syria of ignoring U.S. requests to crack down on Palestinian and Lebanese guerrilla groups.

The administration has accused Damascus of doing little to help the United States in its war against terrorism and said it has allowed groups to pass into Iraq to attack U.S. soldiers.

Syria has said relations with the United States were the most negative in years. It said it is working to secure the border and urged Washington to do the same on the Iraq side.

BUSH CAN ADJUST SANCTIONS

The bill, some two years in the making, lets Bush "calibrate U.S. sanctions against Syria in response to positive Syrian behavior," Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard Lugar said.

Lugar, an Indiana Republican, said Damascus has a choice of continuing "to harbor and support groups devoted to terror, or it can act in ways that will help restore stability and peace to the region and thereby create a better economic future for its people."

Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, a South Dakota Democrat, said the time "to sit back and hope for Syria to change course has passed," and that it "simply has failed one too many times to live up to these obligations."

No senator spoke against the sanctions bill.

With trade between the two countries a modest $300 million or less annually, the sanctions would have more political than economic effects.

The bill would ban U.S. trade with Syria in items that could be used in weapons programs.

It also calls on Bush to impose at least two other sanctions from a menu including barring U.S. businesses from investing in Syria, restricting travel in the United States by Syrian diplomats, and banning exports of U.S. products other than food and medicine to Syria.

Sen. Sam Brownback, a Kansas Republican, said there are people in the administration urging Bush to waive the sanctions. But Brownback said Bush instead should "throw the book" and impose the full menu of penalties on the Damascus government, which he said was similar to Saddam Hussein's ousted regime in Iraq.

Voting against the bill were Sens. Robert Byrd, a West Virginia Democrat, and Republicans Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island and Mike Enzi of Wyoming, and Independent James Jeffords of Vermont.

(China Daily November 12, 2003)