Boston Globe To Report US Cutting Diplomatic Ties to Syria

Boston Globe to report U.S. cutting
diplomatic ties with Syria

RAW STORY


The United States has cut off nearly all contact with the Syrian government as the Bush administration steps up a campaign to weaken and isolate President Bashar al-Assad's regime, according to US and Syrian officials, the Boston Globe will report in Tuesday editions, RAW STORY has learned.

"The United States has halted high-level diplomatic meetings, limited military coordination on Syria's border with Iraq, and ended dialogue with Syria's Finance Ministry on amending its banking laws to block terrorist financing," the Globe's Farah Stockman and Thanassis Cambanis write. "In recent months, as distrust between the two countries widened, the United States also declined a proposal from Syria to revive intelligence cooperation with Syria, according to Syria's ambassador to the United States, Imad Moustapha, and a US official."

They add, "The US-Syrian confrontation has sharpened just as Syria is also facing pressure from many Arab and European governments - as well as the United States - over Syria's suspected role in the assassination of the former prime minister of Lebanon, Rafik Hariri.

"When the time was best for [cooperation], they played games, and now it looks like they are trying to make up some ground," a senior U.S. official tells the Globe...

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