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EU, Syria trade escalating diplomatic blows

01 December 2011, 22:33 CET
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(BRUSSELS) - The European Union and Syria traded escalating diplomatic blows Thursday as the EU tightened sanctions on energy and financial sectors, Damascus then pulling out of a shared Mediterranean Union.

In Brussels, the EU targeted these key economic sectors in order to punish President Bashar al-Assad's regime for its crackdown on dissidents.

"The EU reiterates its condemnation in the strongest terms of the brutal crackdown by the Syrian government which risks taking Syria down a very dangerous path of violence, sectarian clashes and militarisation," EU foreign ministers said in a statement during talks in Brussels.

Then state media in Damascus said Syria had suspended its participation in the Mediterranean Union by way of retaliation.

"Syria is suspending its membership in the Mediterranean Union in response to European measures taken against it," said a statement carried on the official SANA news agency.

The Mediterranean Union, an initiative of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, was inaugurated in 2008 to bolster cooperation between Europe, the Middle East and north Africa.

The European ministers said they decided to implement "further restrictive measures targeting the regimes ability to conduct its brutal repression."

The sanctions target "the energy, financial, banking and trade sectors and include the listing of additional individuals and entities that are involved in the violence or directly supporting the regime."

Diplomats said the measures include bans on exporting gas and oil industry equipment to Syria, trading Syrian government bonds and selling software that could be used to monitor Internet and telephone communications.

They also agreed to refrain from providing concessional loans to Syria -- credit at lower rates and for longer grace periods than what is offered by the markets.

The goal is to restrict the regime's access to cash.

The EU also added 12 more individuals and 11 more entities to a blacklist of people and companies hit by assets freezes and travel bans over the regime's crackdown on protesters, diplomats said.

The EU has passed nine rounds of sanctions against Syria, placing 74 people on the list, including Assad, enforcing an arms embargo and banning imports of Syrian crude oil.

The UN says the violence has killed more than 3,500 people since mid-March.

3130th FOREIGN AFFAIRS Council meeting - Brussels, 30 November and 1 December 2011 (Provisional version)


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