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Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said Thursday he was "very happy" after the US House of Representatives voted to sanction Syria for its alleged ties to terrorist groups and purported efforts to obtain nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. "I am very happy that the legislation has been passed for this will lead to the isolation of Syria," Shalom told public radio. "Syria must understand that it cannot belong to two worlds at the same time -- being a country that shelters Palestinian terrorist organizations and Hezbollah while at the same time having international status that allows it to be a member of the UN Security Council," he said. Hezbollah is the Lebanese Shiite Muslim group, backed by both Syria and Iran, which has waged a decades-long guerrilla war against Israel from southern Lebanon. "The House of Representatives vote reflects a sea change in the international community and in the United States, which understands that the battle against terrorism must be global and target not just terrorist organizations but also the countries that aid them," Shalom added. The legislation passed overwhelmingly by the House gives the White House a range of options for sanctioning Syria, from restricting US exports and business investment to downgrading Washington's diplomatic representation and imposing travel restrictions on Syrian diplomats in the United States. The bill also bans the exportation of "dual-use" technology, and allows the US government to freeze Syria's assets in the United States and restrict overflight rights for Syrian aircraft inside US airspace. It still has to go before the Senate and be signed into law by President George W. Bush, but its passage is not in doubt. It was only recently that the Bush administration dropped its opposition to the measure, having argued that it could undermine Syrian cooperation in the war on terrorism and have negative repercussions on efforts to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. On October 5, Israel carried out an air strike on Syrian territory, hitting what it said was a training camp used by Islamic Jihad, which claimed a suicide bombing a day earlier in the northern port city of Haifa. The bomb killed 21 people, in addition to the female bomber. Syria denied that the target hit was a training camp, saying it was a civilian site. All rights reserved. Copyright 2003 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse. Quick Links
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