US steps up pressure against Syria

[Hannah Bell]

The Obama administration announced Monday that it is pursuing possible sanctions against the Syrian government. The move corresponds with steps by European powers to pass a resolution in the United Nations Security Council condemning the crackdown on opposition protests in the country.

These twin actions mark a shift toward stepped-up pressure on the regime of Bashar al-Assad, as Western powers seek to exploit unrest and mass protests in Syria to advance their own interests in the region. The Financial Times commented that the US move “heralds a likely shift by Western governments toward increasing pressure on Damascus.”

On Sunday, independent Senator Joseph Lieberman, no doubt expressing sentiments among a broader layer of the US political establishment, called for “getting tough” on the Assad government... Lieberman pointed to the real motivations of any US action, declaring that Syria “has tremendous strategic significance for the region.” He noted that the Assad regime is “the only Arab ally that Iran has...”

Syria’s strategic significance for US imperialism lies not so much in its natural resources—one of the major factors behind the US-European war in Libya—but its location. It borders several key countries in the Middle East, including Israel, Jordan, Iraq, Turkey and Lebanon. Syria has repeatedly clashed with Israel and in 2007 was targeted by an Israeli air raid against an alleged nuclear facility.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/apr2011/syri-a26.shtml