–The sub-committee on Europe and the Middle East of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, citing Syria’s “aggression” in Lebanon, agreed today to cut off $130.2 million in funds that had been allocated to Syria in previous years.
The subcommittee action, led by Reps. Tom Lantos (D. Cal.) and Millicent Fenwick (R. N.J.), must be approved by the full committee. It involves funds previously allocated through the Agency for International Development (AID) for road and sewer construction and rural electrification but never spent.
Lantos, in urging the action, noted that he agreed with Secretary of State Alexander Haig who, in Jerusalem this week, blamed the Syrians for the hostilities in Lebanon, However, a State Department official, Peter Constable, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the Near East and South Asian Affairs, opposed the cutoff in the funds.
Lantos told the subcommittee that Syria is hostile to U.S. interests in the Middle East and supports organized terrorism. “The Syrian occupation forces make a travesty of international justice with their latest brutal attack on Lebanon’s Christian community, ” he said.
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