SYRIA.

SEC. 311. SYRIA. (a) It is the sense of the Congress that— (1) The successful conclusion of the war in the Persian Gulf provides an opportunity to begin building a lasting peace in the Middle East; (2) A crucial element of peace in this unstable region is the willingness of Arab states to negotiate with Israel, recognizing her right to live in peace; (3) The United States should continue to urge Arab states to negotiate peace with the State of Israel; (4) One of those Arab states, Syria, continues to undermine goodwill and peace in the region by depriving the 4,000 Jews living in Syria of the right to emigrate; (5) Syrian Jews continue to live in a climate of fear and insecurity, still denied fundamental civil and human rights; 105 STAT. 154 (6) A Jew living in Syria, in order to travel, must leave a large sum of money and members of his immediate family as insurance for his return; (7) Jews suspected of having traveled “illegally” or even of planning to do so have been arrested, interrogated, and subjected to lengthy imprisonment; (8) Syrian President Hafez Assad continues to deny the basic right of free emigration, a violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to which Syria is a signatory. (b) The Congress— (1) condemns the Government of Syria for continuing to deny the basic human right of free emigration; (2) calls upon the Government of Syria— (A) to allow all Syrian Jews to emigrate freely, (B) to release from prison Jews suspected of having travelled “illegally” or of planning to do so; (3) urges the Administration to continue to make known to Syrian authorities the importance of respecting the human rights of the Jewish community, especially the right to emigrate, in determining future policy toward Syria.