Maybe "slam" is too harsh a word for the country that has done more than any other to accommodate Iraqi refugees--upwards of 1.5 million at last check, out of the 2.2 million who've fled Iraq (and another 2.2 million who've fled their homes but remain in Iraq). Jordan is second on the list of host countries, taking in up to 750,000 refugees. But Syria, which cannot very well afford it, is by far bearing the heaviest burden.

From 2,000 to 4,000 Iraqi refugees have been flooding into Syria every day for the last year or so, including 25,000 in the last four days of September. That last figure alone suggests that any talk of a mending situation in Iraq is either wildly off the mark, or thousands of Iraqis have suddenly decided to become voluntary exiles. For comparative purposes, the 1.5 million Iraqis in Syria compares with just 119,000 Palestinian refugees there.

Syria isn't usually a country associated with magnanimity, least of all toward Iraq, long a rival in the region. In this case, Syria proved Iraqi refugees' most willing friend. But the open door is shutting. On Oct. 1, Syria all but closed its borders to Iraqi refugees. Until now, Iraqis going to Syria faced almost as few hurdles as, say, New Yorkers going to New Jersey. Which is to say, none at all. Officially, Iraqis were granted permission to stay in Syria three months before applying for a visa. Syria didn't enforce the rule. Now, most Iraqis will be banned from entering the country outright, while professionals, academics, merchants who can prove they have business in Syria and taxi drivers, will be granted entry--once they've secured a visa through the Syrian embassy in Baghdad.

The news is also grim for those already in Iraq. In order to stay, they have to abide by the same visa rules. Which means making the trip back to Iraq, applying for a visa in Baghdad--if they qualify--and waiting for approval. Good luck.

The United States has no leverage in this. It cannot beg and plead with Syria, for two reasons. First, it would run against American policy of blind optimism about Iraq to suggest that Syria's open door is needed, since officially the American occupation doesn't considers fleeing Iraq a necessity. Second, the United States has done pitifully little to take in Iraqi refugees--less than 20,000 so far, and most of those were granted asylum before the 2003 invasion. In 2006, the United States granted asylum to 535 Iraqis. In the first six months of 2007, 385.

Late Sunday SANA, the Syrian state news agency, announced that the nation's foreign ministry the United Nations Development Program signed an agreement to assess "the social and economic effects of the Iraqi refugees in Syria." But that's just a little trompe l'oeuil sort of thing to distract from the direr announcement. UNDP has little to nothing to do with refugees. It's the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees that matters, and in this case, UNHCR, which has done all the pleading it could to keep Syria's borders open, seems out of options.