DAMASCUS, Syria -- Syria plans to sue the U.S. for supplying arms to Israel that later killed Syrians in its 2006 war with Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon, the Syrian foreign minister said Thursday, a day after Washington announced new sanctions against Damascus. Speaking at a news conference with his Iranian counterpart, Manouchehr Mottaki, Foreign Minister Walid Moallem said Syria would retaliate for the U.S. decision to impose fresh sanctions on Syrian officials. "This time I tell you we will punish the United States ... there are scores of Syrians who became victims during the Israeli war against Lebanon, they will file lawsuits against America" for providing Israel with weapons, he said. On Wednesday, President Bush issued an executive order expanding sanctions against senior Syrian government officials and their associates deemed responsible for or to have benefited from public corruption. The order named no specific officials The White House said Wednesday's order expanded action taken in May 2004 when Bush issued an executive order banning all U.S. exports to Syria except for food and medicine. He ordered those sanctions after long-standing complaints that Syria's regime was supporting international terrorism and undermining U.S. efforts to rebuild Iraq.
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