EU acts to put more pressure on Assad

The Syria conflict has been a real concern and a major source of worries for the western world, Turkey to be in the first row.

In spite of all the expectations Assad would not be able to hold on under the prevailing conditions in said country, he has not taken a step back so far.

Turkey on the other hand has been given a strong push by its allies US to be in the first row but has hardly felt the support from the allies in case it would be required, except for a faint support message from Nato.

It is good to know that the EU Foreign Ministers have finally decided to expand the set of sanctions against the Assad regime which everybody hopes will help Assad realize the situation and quit – although it does not sound very likely at the moment based on what has been experienced so far.

Within the scope of new sanctions to be applied by EU, the landing of Syrian Airlines flights at EU airports has been banned and the number of individuals and corporations whose assets have been frozen has also been increased. This brought the number of decisions the EU has made to impose sanctions on the Al Assad regime so far to 19.

On top of the 28 people supporting the policies of violence targeting people, 2 establishments have also been black listed and their assets in the EU countries have been frozen. That has raised the number of individuals  to 181 and the number of corporations black listed by the EU to 54.

Sources supplying weapons to said country is another concern for the EU. In fact, following the meeting where additional sanctions were imposed on Syria, EU Common Security and Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton called on all countries not to send any weapons to Syria and expressd her concerns in regards

15.10.2012
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