Pub.L. 108-176 To amend title 49, United States Code, to reauthorize programs for the Federal Aviation Administration, and for other purposes. <> ...

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[[Page 2481]]

  SYRIA ACCOUNTABILITY AND LEBANESE SOVEREIGNTY RESTORATION ACT OF 2003

[[Page 117 STAT. 2482]]

Public Law 108-175
108th Congress

                                 An Act


 
To halt Syrian support for terrorism, end its occupation of Lebanon, and 
  stop its development of weapons of mass destruction, and by so doing 
 hold Syria accountable for the serious international security problems 
 it has caused in the Middle East, and for other purposes. <<NOTE: Dec. 
                       12, 2003 -  [H.R. 1828]>> 

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled, <<NOTE: Syria 
Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act of 2003.>> 

SECTION 1. <<NOTE: 22 USC 2151 note.>> SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Syria Accountability and Lebanese 
Sovereignty Restoration Act of 2003''.

SEC. 2. <<NOTE: 22 USC 2151 note.>> FINDINGS.

    Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) On June 24, 2002, President Bush stated ``Syria must 
        choose the right side in the war on terror by closing terrorist 
        camps and expelling terrorist organizations''.
            (2) United Nations Security Council Resolution 1373 
        (September 28, 2001) mandates that all states ``refrain from 
        providing any form of support, active or passive, to entities or 
        persons involved in terrorist acts'', take ``the necessary steps 
        to prevent the commission of terrorist acts'', and ``deny safe 
        haven to those who finance, plan, support, or commit terrorist 
        acts''.
            (3) The Government of Syria is currently prohibited by 
        United States law from receiving United States assistance 
        because it has repeatedly provided support for acts of 
        international terrorism, as determined by the Secretary of State 
        for purposes of section 6(j)(1) of the Export Administration Act 
        of 1979 (50 U.S.C. App. 2405(j)(1)) and other relevant 
        provisions of law.
            (4) Although the Department of State lists Syria as a state 
        sponsor of terrorism and reports that Syria provides ``safe 
        haven and support to several terrorist groups'', fewer United 
        States sanctions apply with respect to Syria than with respect 
        to any other country that is listed as a state sponsor of 
        terrorism.
            (5) Terrorist groups, including Hizballah, Hamas, 
        Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation 
        of Palestine, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of 
        Palestine--General Command, maintain offices, training camps, 
        and other facilities on Syrian territory, and operate in areas 
        of Lebanon occupied by the Syrian armed forces and receive 
        supplies from Iran through Syria.

[[Page 117 STAT. 2483]]

            (6) United Nations Security Council Resolution 520 
        (September 17, 1982) calls for ``strict respect of the 
        sovereignty, territorial integrity, unity and political 
        independence of Lebanon under the sole and exclusive authority 
        of the Government of Lebanon through the Lebanese Army 
        throughout Lebanon''.
            (7) Approximately 20,000 Syrian troops and security 
        personnel occupy much of the sovereign territory of Lebanon 
        exerting undue influence upon its government and undermining its 
        political independence.
            (8) Since 1990 the Senate and House of Representatives have 
        passed seven bills and resolutions which call for the withdrawal 
        of Syrian armed forces from Lebanon.
            (9) On March 3, 2003, Secretary of State Colin Powell 
        declared that it is the objective of the United States to ``let 
        Lebanon be ruled by the Lebanese people without the presence of 
        [the Syrian] occupation army''.
            (10) Large and increasing numbers of the Lebanese people 
        from across the political spectrum in Lebanon have mounted 
        peaceful and democratic calls for the withdrawal of the Syrian 
        Army from Lebanese soil.
            (11) Israel has withdrawn all of its armed forces from 
        Lebanon in accordance with United Nations Security Council 
        Resolution 425 (March 19, 1978), as certified by the United 
        Nations Secretary General.
            (12) Even in the face of this United Nations certification 
        that acknowledged Israel's full compliance with Security Council 
        Resolution 425, Syrian- and Iranian-supported Hizballah 
        continues to attack Israeli outposts at Shebaa Farms, under the 
        pretense that Shebaa Farms is territory from which Israel was 
        required to withdraw by Security Counsel Resolution 425, and 
        Syrian- and Iranian-supported Hizballah and other militant 
        organizations continue to attack civilian targets in Israel.
            (13) Syria will not allow Lebanon--a sovereign country--to 
        fulfill its obligation in accordance with Security Council 
        Resolution 425 to deploy its troops to southern Lebanon.
            (14) As a result, the Israeli-Lebanese border and much of 
        southern Lebanon is under the control of Hizballah, which 
        continues to attack Israeli positions, allows Iranian 
        Revolutionary Guards and other militant groups to operate freely 
        in the area, and maintains thousands of rockets along Israel's 
        northern border, destabilizing the entire region.
            (15) On February 12, 2003, Director of Central Intelligence 
        George Tenet stated the following with respect to the Syrian- 
        and Iranian-supported Hizballah: ``[A]s an organization with 
        capability and worldwide presence [it] is [al Qaeda's] equal if 
        not a far more capable organization * * * [T]hey're a notch 
        above in many respects, in terms of in their relationship with 
        the Iranians and the training they receive, [which] puts them in 
        a state-sponsored category with a potential for lethality that's 
        quite great.''.
            (16) In the State of the Union address on January 29, 2002, 
        President Bush declared that the United States will ``work 
        closely with our coalition to deny terrorists and their state 
        sponsors the materials, technology, and expertise to make and 
        deliver weapons of mass destruction''.

[[Page 117 STAT. 2484]]

            (17) The Government of Syria continues to develop and deploy 
        short- and medium-range ballistic missiles.
            (18) According to the December 2001 unclassified Central 
        Intelligence Agency report entitled ``Foreign Missile 
        Developments and the Ballistic Missile Threat through 2015'', 
        ``Syria maintains a ballistic missile and rocket force of 
        hundreds of FROG rockets, Scuds, and SS-21 SRBMs [and] Syria has 
        developed [chemical weapons] warheads for its Scuds''.
            (19) The Government of Syria is pursuing the development and 
        production of biological and chemical weapons and has a nuclear 
        research and development program that is cause for concern.
            (20) According to the Central Intelligence Agency's 
        ``Unclassified Report to Congress on the Acquisition of 
        Technology Relating to Weapons of Mass Destruction and Advanced 
        Conventional Munitions'', released January 7, 2003: ``[Syria] 
        already holds a stockpile of the nerve agent sarin but 
        apparently is trying to develop more toxic and persistent nerve 
        agents. Syria remains dependent on foreign sources for key 
        elements of its [chemical weapons] program, including precursor 
        chemicals and key production equipment. It is highly probable 
        that Syria also is developing an offensive [biological weapons] 
        capability.''.
            (21) On May 6, 2002, the Under Secretary of State for Arms 
        Control and International Security, John Bolton, stated: ``The 
        United States also knows that Syria has long had a chemical 
        warfare program. It has a stockpile of the nerve agent sarin and 
        is engaged in research and development of the more toxic and 
        persistent nerve agent VX. Syria, which has signed but not 
        ratified the [Biological Weapons Convention], is pursuing the 
        development of biological weapons and is able to produce at 
        least small amounts of biological warfare agents.''.
            (22) According to the Central Intelligence Agency's 
        ``Unclassified Report to Congress on the Acquisition of 
        Technology Relating to Weapons of Mass Destruction and Advanced 
        Conventional Munitions'', released January 7, 2003: ``Russia and 
        Syria have approved a draft cooperative program on cooperation 
        on civil nuclear power. In principal, broader access to Russian 
        expertise provides opportunities for Syria to expand its 
        indigenous capabilities, should it decide to pursue nuclear 
        weapons.''.
            (23) Under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear 
        Weapons (21 UST 483), which entered force on March 5, 1970, and 
        to which Syria is a party, Syria has undertaken not to acquire 
        or produce nuclear weapons and has accepted full scope 
        safeguards of the International Atomic Energy Agency to detect 
        diversions of nuclear materials from peaceful activities to the 
        production of nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive 
        devices.
            (24) Syria is not a party to the Chemical Weapons Convention 
        or the Biological Weapons Convention, which entered into force 
        on April 29, 1997, and on March 26, 1975, respectively.
            (25) Syrian President Bashar Assad promised Secretary of 
        State Powell in February 2001 to end violations of Security 
        Council Resolution 661, which restricted the sale of oil and 
        other commodities by Saddam Hussein's regime, except to the

[[Page 117 STAT. 2485]]

        extent authorized by other relevant resolutions, but this pledge 
        was never fulfilled.
            (26) Syria's illegal imports and transshipments of Iraqi oil 
        during Saddam Hussein's regime earned Syria $50,000,000 or more 
        per month as Syria continued to sell its own Syrian oil at 
        market prices.
            (27) Syria's illegal imports and transshipments of Iraqi oil 
        earned Saddam Hussein's regime $2,000,000 per day.
            (28) On March 28, 2003, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld 
        warned: ``[W]e have information that shipments of military 
        supplies have been crossing the border from Syria into Iraq, 
        including night-vision goggles * * * These deliveries pose a 
        direct threat to the lives of coalition forces. We consider such 
        trafficking as hostile acts, and will hold the Syrian government 
        accountable for such shipments.''.
            (29) According to Article 23(1) of the United Nations 
        Charter, members of the United Nations are elected as 
        nonpermanent members of the United Nations Security Council with 
        ``due regard being specially paid, in the first instance to the 
        contribution of members of the United Nations to the maintenance 
        of international peace and security and to other purposes of the 
        Organization''.
            (30) Despite Article 23(1) of the United Nations Charter, 
        Syria was elected on October 8, 2001, to a 2-year term as a 
        nonpermanent member of the United Nations Security Council 
        beginning January 1, 2002, and served as President of the 
        Security Council during June 2002 and August 2003.
            (31) On March 31, 2003, the Syrian Foreign Minister, Farouq 
        al-Sharra, made the Syrian regime's intentions clear when he 
        explicitly stated that ``Syria's interest is to see the invaders 
        defeated in Iraq''.
            (32) On April 13, 2003, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld 
        charged that ``busloads'' of Syrian fighters entered Iraq with 
        ``hundreds of thousands of dollars'' and leaflets offering 
        rewards for dead American soldiers.
            (33) On September 16, 2003, the Under Secretary of State for 
        Arms Control and International Security, John Bolton, appeared 
        before the Subcommittee on the Middle East and Central Asia of 
        the Committee on International Relations of the House of 
        Representatives, and underscored Syria's ``hostile actions'' 
        toward coalition forces during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Under 
        Secretary Bolton added that: ``Syria allowed military equipment 
        to flow into Iraq on the eve of and during the war. Syria 
        permitted volunteers to pass into Iraq to attack and kill our 
        service members during the war, and is still doing so * * * 
        [Syria's] behavior during Operation Iraqi Freedom underscores 
        the importance of taking seriously reports and information on 
        Syria's WMD capabilities.''.
            (34) During his appearance before the Committee on 
        International Relations of the House of Representatives on 
        September 25, 2003, Ambassador L. Paul Bremer, III, 
        Administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, 
        stated that out of the 278 third-country nationals who were 
        captured by coalition forces in Iraq, the ``single largest group 
        are Syrians''.

[[Page 117 STAT. 2486]]

SEC. 3. <<NOTE: 22 USC 2151 note.>> SENSE OF CONGRESS.

    It is the sense of Congress that--
            (1) the Government of Syria should immediately and 
        unconditionally halt support for terrorism, permanently and 
        openly declare its total renunciation of all forms of terrorism, 
        and close all terrorist offices and facilities in Syria, 
        including the offices of Hamas, Hizballah, Palestinian Islamic 
        Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and 
        the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine--General 
        Command;
            (2) the Government of Syria should--
                    (A) immediately and unconditionally stop 
                facilitating transit from Syria to Iraq of individuals, 
                military equipment, and all lethal items, except as 
                authorized by the Coalition Provisional Authority or a 
                representative, internationally recognized Iraqi 
                government;
                    (B) cease its support for ``volunteers'' and 
                terrorists who are traveling from and through Syria into 
                Iraq to launch attacks; and
                    (C) undertake concrete, verifiable steps to deter 
                such behavior and control the use of territory under 
                Syrian control;
            (3) the Government of Syria should immediately declare its 
        commitment to completely withdraw its armed forces, including 
        military, paramilitary, and security forces, from Lebanon, and 
        set a firm timetable for such withdrawal;
            (4) the Government of Lebanon should deploy the Lebanese 
        armed forces to all areas of Lebanon, including South Lebanon, 
        in accordance with United Nations Security Council Resolution 
        520 (September 17, 1982), in order to assert the sovereignty of 
        the Lebanese state over all of its territory, and should evict 
        all terrorist and foreign forces from southern Lebanon, 
        including Hizballah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards;
            (5) the Government of Syria should halt the development and 
        deployment of medium- and long-range surface-to-surface missiles 
        and cease the development and production of biological and 
        chemical weapons;
            (6) the Governments of Lebanon and Syria should enter into 
        serious unconditional bilateral negotiations with the Government 
        of Israel in order to realize a full and permanent peace;
            (7) the United States should continue to provide 
        humanitarian and educational assistance to the people of Lebanon 
        only through appropriate private, nongovernmental organizations 
        and appropriate international organizations, until such time as 
        the Government of Lebanon asserts sovereignty and control over 
        all of its territory and borders and achieves full political 
        independence, as called for in United Nations Security Council 
        Resolution 520; and
            (8) as a violator of several key United Nations Security 
        Council resolutions and as a nation that pursues policies which 
        undermine international peace and security, Syria should not 
        have been permitted to join the United Nations Security Council 
        or serve as the Security Council's President, and should be 
        removed from the Security Council.

[[Page 117 STAT. 2487]]

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