Damascus Asks U.S. To End Sanctions on Syrian Bank (New WMW)

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1//The Daily Star, Lebanon Wednesday, December 01, 2004

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=3&article_id=10557



DAMASCUS ASKS U.S. TO END SANCTIONS ON SYRIAN BANK

Arabs finalize crackdown on terror financing

Syria asks for American help to develop banking, customs systems


Compiled by Daily Star staff


Finance Minister Mohammed al-Hussein has asked Washington to scrap its threat of sanctions against Commercial Bank of Syria over charges of financing terrorism, the ruling Baath Party's daily reported Tuesday.



Al-Baath said the request was made in a meeting with a U.S. Treasury department delegation on the sidelines of a meeting in Bahrain on starting a Middle East agency to fight money-laundering and terror financing.

"We asked the U.S. delegation for official guarantees on the annulment, not just a suspension, of the sanctions that were planned" against the state-owned bank, the finance minister told the newspaper.

Syrian and U.S. officials opened talks in September to try to resolve the sanctions threat.

Washington has raised concerns over the alleged involvement of the Syrian bank in money-laundering operations and the financing of terrorism, threatening sanctions under the Patriot Act passed after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The Syrian delegation in Bahrain also called for U.S. assistance in developing Syria's banking and customs systems, and equipment to supervise the border with Iraq, Hussein said.



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