Report: Sanctions part of Syrian solution

WASHINGTON, July 27 (UPI) -- Tough sanctions and diplomatic pressure on the regime in Damascus would go a long way to undercut the economic incentives from foreign fighters, analysts say.

Foreign fighters infiltrating Iraq from the porous Syrian border provide both positive and negative economic impacts on the regime in Damascus.

Eliminating the network of insurgents requires the severing of financial and material support, but sanctions alone will not be enough, notes Matthew Levitt with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

Levitt notes that support for foreign insurgents is beneficial to Damascus as it uses various insurgent networks as a proxy for pursuing domestic and foreign policy initiatives.

But blanket sanctions may not be enough to persuade Damascus to abandon those efforts, Levitt writes. Instead, a policy of targeted sanctions coupled with tough diplomacy could be effective.

Washington during the weekend decided to lift sanctions on Damascus tied to civilian aviation and some communications equipment as part of a broader policy of detente in the Middle East.

Levitt notes that, when combined with the right policy tools, however, sanctions on Damascus can increase the cost of operating outside the normative benchmarks of acceptable behavior.