H. R. 1828—3
(17) The Government of Syria continues to develop and
deploy short- and medium-range ballistic missiles.
(18) According to the December 2001 unclassified Central
Intelligence Agency report entitled ‘‘Foreign Missile Develop-
ments and the Ballistic Missile Threat through 2015’’, ‘‘Syria
maintains a ballistic missile and rocket force of hundreds of
FROG rockets, Scuds, and SS–21 SRBMs [and] Syria has devel-
oped [chemical weapons] warheads for its Scuds’’.
(19) The Government of Syria is pursuing the development
and production of biological and chemical weapons and has
a nuclear research and development program that is cause
for concern.
(20) According to the Central Intelligence Agency’s
‘‘Unclassified Report to Congress on the Acquisition of Tech-
nology Relating to Weapons of Mass Destruction and Advanced
Conventional Munitions’’, released January 7, 2003: ‘‘[Syria]
already holds a stockpile of the nerve agent sarin but appar-
ently is trying to develop more toxic and persistent nerve
agents. Syria remains dependent on foreign sources for key
elements of its [chemical weapons] program, including precursor
chemicals and key production equipment. It is highly probable
that Syria also is developing an offensive [biological weapons]
capability.’’.
(21) On May 6, 2002, the Under Secretary of State for
Arms Control and International Security, John Bolton, stated:
‘‘The United States also knows that Syria has long had a
chemical warfare program. It has a stockpile of the nerve
agent sarin and is engaged in research and development of
the more toxic and persistent nerve agent VX. Syria, which
has signed but not ratified the [Biological Weapons Convention],
is pursuing the development of biological weapons and is able
to produce at least small amounts of biological warfare agents.’’.
(22) According to the Central Intelligence Agency’s
‘‘Unclassified Report to Congress on the Acquisition of Tech-
nology Relating to Weapons of Mass Destruction and Advanced
Conventional Munitions’’, released January 7, 2003: ‘‘Russia
and Syria have approved a draft cooperative program on
cooperation on civil nuclear power. In principal, broader access
to Russian expertise provides opportunities for Syria to expand
its indigenous capabilities, should it decide to pursue nuclear
weapons.’’.
(23) Under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear
Weapons (21 UST 483), which entered force on March 5, 1970,
and to which Syria is a party, Syria has undertaken not to
acquire or produce nuclear weapons and has accepted full scope
safeguards of the International Atomic Energy Agency to detect
diversions of nuclear materials from peaceful activities to the
production of nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive
devices.
(24) Syria is not a party to the Chemical Weapons Conven-
tion or the Biological Weapons Convention, which entered into
force on April 29, 1997, and on March 26, 1975, respectively.
(25) Syrian President Bashar Assad promised Secretary
of State Powell in February 2001 to end violations of Security
Council Resolution 661, which restricted the sale of oil and
other commodities by Saddam Hussein’s regime, except to the
H. R. 1828—4
extent authorized by other relevant resolutions, but this pledge
was never fulfilled.
(26) Syria’s illegal imports and transshipments of Iraqi
oil during Saddam Hussein’s regime earned Syria $50,000,000
or more per month as Syria continued to sell its own Syrian
oil at market prices.
(27) Syria’s illegal imports and transshipments of Iraqi
oil earned Saddam Hussein’s regime $2,000,000 per day.
(28) On March 28, 2003, Secretary of Defense Donald
Rumsfeld warned: ‘‘[W]e have information that shipments of
military supplies have been crossing the border from Syria
into Iraq, including night-vision goggles * * * These deliveries
pose a direct threat to the lives of coalition forces. We consider
such trafficking as hostile acts, and will hold the Syrian govern-
ment accountable for such shipments.’’.
(29) According to Article 23(1) of the United Nations
Charter, members of the United Nations are elected as non-
permanent members of the United Nations Security Council
with ‘‘due regard being specially paid, in the first instance
to the contribution of members of the United Nations to the
maintenance of international peace and security and to other
purposes of the Organization’’.
(30) Despite Article 23(1) of the United Nations Charter,
Syria was elected on October 8, 2001, to a 2-year term as
a nonpermanent member of the United Nations Security
Council beginning January 1, 2002, and served as President
of the Security Council during June 2002 and August 2003.
(31) On March 31, 2003, the Syrian Foreign Minister,
Farouq al-Sharra, made the Syrian regime’s intentions clear
when he explicitly stated that ‘‘Syria’s interest is to see the
invaders defeated in Iraq’’.
(32) On April 13, 2003, Secretary of Defense Donald Rums-
feld charged that ‘‘busloads’’ of Syrian fighters entered Iraq
with ‘‘hundreds of thousands of dollars’’ and leaflets offering
rewards for dead American soldiers.
(33) On September 16, 2003, the Under Secretary of State
for Arms Control and International Security, John Bolton,
appeared before the Subcommittee on the Middle East and
Central Asia of the Committee on International Relations of
the House of Representatives, and underscored Syria’s ‘‘hostile
actions’’ toward coalition forces during Operation Iraqi
Freedom. Under Secretary Bolton added that: ‘‘Syria allowed
military equipment to flow into Iraq on the eve of and during
the war. Syria permitted volunteers to pass into Iraq to attack
and kill our service members during the war, and is still
doing so * * * [Syria’s] behavior during Operation Iraqi Freedom
underscores the importance of taking seriously reports and
information on Syria’s WMD capabilities.’’.
(34) During his appearance before the Committee on Inter-
national Relations of the House of Representatives on Sep-
tember 25, 2003, Ambassador L. Paul Bremer, III, Adminis-
trator of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, stated
that out of the 278 third-country nationals who were captured
by coalition forces in Iraq, the ‘‘single largest group are Syr-
ians’’.
H. R. 1828—5
SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS.
It is the sense of Congress that—
(1) the Government of Syria should immediately and
unconditionally halt support for terrorism, permanently and
openly declare its total renunciation of all forms of terrorism,
and close all terrorist offices and facilities in Syria, including
the offices of Hamas, Hizballah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad,
the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and the
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine—General Com-
mand;
(2) the Government of Syria should—
(A) immediately and unconditionally stop facilitating
transit from Syria to Iraq of individuals, military equip-
ment, and all lethal items, except as authorized by the
Coalition Provisional Authority or a representative, inter-
nationally recognized Iraqi government;
(B) cease its support for ‘‘volunteers’’ and terrorists
who are traveling from and through Syria into Iraq to
launch attacks; and
(C) undertake concrete, verifiable steps to deter such
behavior and control the use of territory under Syrian
control;
(3) the Government of Syria should immediately declare
its commitment to completely withdraw its armed forces,
including military, paramilitary, and security forces, from Leb-
anon, and set a firm timetable for such withdrawal;
(4) the Government of Lebanon should deploy the Lebanese
armed forces to all areas of Lebanon, including South Lebanon,
in accordance with United Nations Security Council Resolution
520 (September 17, 1982), in order to assert the sovereignty
of the Lebanese state over all of its territory, and should evict
all terrorist and foreign forces from southern Lebanon,
including Hizballah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards;
(5) the Government of Syria should halt the development
and deployment of medium- and long-range surface-to-surface
missiles and cease the development and production of biological
and chemical weapons;
(6) the Governments of Lebanon and Syria should enter
into serious unconditional bilateral negotiations with the
Government of Israel in order to realize a full and permanent
peace;
(7) the United States should continue to provide humani-
tarian and educational assistance to the people of Lebanon
only through appropriate private, nongovernmental organiza-
tions and appropriate international organizations, until such
time as the Government of Lebanon asserts sovereignty and
control over all of its territory and borders and achieves full
political independence, as called for in United Nations Security
Council Resolution 520; and
(8) as a violator of several key United Nations Security
Council resolutions and as a nation that pursues policies which
undermine international peace and security, Syria should not
have been permitted to join the United Nations Security Council
or serve as the Security Council’s President, and should be
removed from the Security Council.
H. R. 1828—6
SEC. 4. STATEMENT OF POLICY.
It is the policy of the United States that—
(1) Syria should bear responsibility for attacks committed
by Hizballah and other terrorist groups with offices, training
camps, or other facilities in Syria, or bases in areas of Lebanon
occupied by Syria;
(2) the United States will work to deny Syria the ability
to support acts of international terrorism and efforts to develop
or acquire weapons of mass destruction;
(3) the Secretary of State will continue to list Syria as
a state sponsor of terrorism until Syria ends its support for
terrorism, including its support of Hizballah and other terrorist
groups in Lebanon and its hosting of terrorist groups in
Damascus, and comes into full compliance with United States
law relating to terrorism and United Nations Security Council
Resolution 1373 (September 28, 2001);
(4) the full restoration of Lebanon’s sovereignty, political
independence, and territorial integrity is in the national secu-
rity interest of the United States;
(5) Syria is in violation of United Nations Security Council
Resolution 520 (September 17, 1982) through its continued
occupation of Lebanese territory and its encroachment upon
Lebanon’s political independence;
(6) Syria’s obligation to withdraw from Lebanon is not
conditioned upon progress in the Israeli-Syrian or Israeli-Leba-
nese peace process but derives from Syria’s obligation under
Security Council Resolution 520;
(7) Syria’s acquisition of weapons of mass destruction and
ballistic missile programs threaten the security of the Middle
East and the national security interests of the United States;
(8) Syria will be held accountable for any harm to Coalition
armed forces or to any United States citizen in Iraq if the
government of Syria is found to be responsible due to its facilita-
tion of terrorist activities and its shipments of military supplies
to Iraq; and
(9) the United States will not provide any assistance to
Syria and will oppose multilateral assistance for Syria until
Syria ends all support for terrorism, withdraws its armed forces
from Lebanon, and halts the development and deployment of
weapons of mass destruction and medium- and long-range sur-
face-to-surface ballistic missiles.
SEC. 5. PENALTIES AND AUTHORIZATION.
(a) PENALTIES.—Until the President makes the determination
that Syria meets all the requirements described in paragraphs
(1) through (4) of subsection (d) and certifies such determination
to Congress in accordance with such subsection—
(1) the President shall prohibit the export to Syria of any
item, including the issuance of a license for the export of
any item, on the United States Munitions List or Commerce
Control List of dual-use items in the Export Administration
Regulations (15 CFR part 730 et seq.); and
(2) the President shall impose two or more of the following
sanctions:
(A) Prohibit the export of products of the United States
(other than food and medicine) to Syria.