The Syrian and Lebanese governments this afternoon criticised a US decision to impose sanctions on Syria as wrong and unfair, but Syria said it still seeks dialogue with President Bush's administration.
Lebanon may prove to be a major loophole in the sanctions which ban all US exports to Syria except food and medicine because goods have flowed freely across the border from Lebanon to Syria.
Importers find it much easier to operate in Lebanon's free market economy than in neighboring Syria, where the economy is under tight government control.
Lebanese President Mr Emile Lahoud made it clear today where his country's sympathies lay. The sanctions were "wrong in content and timing" and Syria will be able to withstand the "new injustice," Mr Lahoud said in a statement issued by his office in Beirut.
The United States imposed the sanctions yesterday as a response to allegations that Syria was supporting terrorism and undermining US efforts in neighboring Iraq. Bush signed the order under a law that Congress passed by overwhelming vote late last year.
"This is an unjust and unjustified decision," Syrian Prime Minister Mt Naji al-Otari told reporters late last night shortly after the announcement was made in Washington.
Mr Al-Otari downplayed the effect of the sanctions. Trade between the two countries amounts to only $300 million a year and there are currently no flights between Syrian and US airports to ban as the sanctions say.