U.S. Pledges to Press Damascus to Allow Jews to Leave Country

The United States will push the Syrian government to ensure that Syrian Jews are being granted visas to leave the country, a high-level State Department official told members of Congress this week.

In testimony Tuesday before the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Europe and the Middle East, Edward Djerejian, the assistant secretary of state for Near East and South Asian affairs, said the United States was “now following up to determine if the pace of giving exit visas can be increased.”

During his recent trip to the Middle East, Secretary of State Warren Christopher raised the issue of Syrian Jewry’s freedom to travel outside the country with Syrian President Hafez Assad.

Since Oct. 20, Syria has almost entirely stopped allowing Jews to leave the country, reversing a 6-month-old policy of permitting free travel abroad for Jews.

Djerejian, responding to a question from Rep. Benjamin Gilman (R-N.Y.), said that Christopher had received “a very clear reconfirmation of Assad’s decision to allow Syrian Jews total freedom of travel.”

Approximately 2,850 Syrian Jews received passports and exit visas between April 1992, when Assad lifted the travel restrictions, and October, Djerejian said.

But since mid-October, he said, “only a few Syrian Jews a week have received exit permits,” and “approximately 1,000 have applications still pending.”

Djerejian said the State Department is concerned that so few Jews are being granted exit visas, adding that “we will follow up both here and in Damascus to help assure that what President Assad told the secretary of state is carried out.”

PRESSED ON SUPPORT FOR TERRORISM

In New York, Alice Harary, president of the Council for the Rescue of Syrian Jews, said in a statement Wednesday that she welcomed the “seriousness with which Secretary Djerejian appeared to be following up assurances given to the Christopher mission concerning future travel for Syrian Jews.”

Harary noted that Djerejian “has consistently demonstrated concern for the plight of Syrian Jews, from the time when he was U.S. ambassador in Damascus.”

But she added that the council is “also very concerned about the failure of the Assad government to resume the issuance of exit permits at the pre-October rate.”

Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.) pressed Djerejian on the issue of Syria’s remaining on the list of countries supporting terrorism. He asked whether Assad understands “that Syria will remain on that list as long as it continues to sponsor terrorism.”

Djerejian said that the United States has been presenting Syria with “the facts” about its support for terrorism. But he acknowledged, “We have not been able to narrow the differences between us on that.”

Lantos also asked about reputed Syrian plans to build a Scud missile production plant. Djerejian said he would answer the question in private session.