Rice wants other nations to put sanctions on Syria
US secretary of state says it may be easier to enlist support of other countries in sanctions on Damascus, 'as Syria continues to show its stripes and isolate itself from its Arab friends'
The United States would like other nations to join it in imposing sanctions on Syria, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in an interview published on Tuesday.
US-Syrian ties, long strained, have worsened in recent years as Washington has accused Syria of helping to fuel the insurgency in Iraq.
The Bush administration accuses Syria of failing to stop anti-US guerrillas from crossing its border into Iraq, supporting terrorism generally and pursuing weapons of mass destruction - charges denied by Damascus.
"What we'd really like to do is we'd like to get some others to join us in other kinds of sanctions," Rice told the New York Times according to a State Department transcript released on Tuesday.
"I think as Syria continues to show its stripes and isolate itself from its Arab friends, that may be somewhat easier to do," she added. "We're going to have to look at tougher measures if Syria continues to be on the path that it's on."
In May 2004, Washington banned US exports to Syria other than food and medicine, severed banking relations with the Commercial Bank of Syria and barred Syrian flights to and from the United States.
Washington also recalled its ambassador to Damascus after the February 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
Rice gave no details as to what sanctions the United States might want imposed on Syria.
"We have a variety of measures that are available to us," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters. "We, at this point, don't have any announcements for you."
