European Union to give tougher sanctions to Syria

European Union to give tougher sanctions to Syria

Amsterdam - In two weeks time, the European Union will decide on whether to impose broader sanction against Syria, giving more pressure to current Syrian President Bashar Assad to immediately end the crackdown and violent dealings with anti-government demonstrators.

The Dutch Ministry on Foreign Affairs said Friday that he is currently trying to lobby among his other European Foreign Ministers to expand their respective countries' travel ban on 35 Syrian officials including Syrian President Bashar Assad. He also urged them to target Syria's banking, telecommunications and energy sectors.

The country of Syria gets 28 % of the country's total income from oil trade. Uri Rosenthal, the Dutch Foreign Minister, said that the right time has come for European Countries to cut off their support and to stop patronizing all profitable Syrian public enterprises. Recent bloody and violent clashes between Syrian troops and anti-government demonstrators took place again in Syria last Friday. A meeting among European Union Ambassadors was already set on September 2 to be held in Poland.

The conference will discuss possible measures to stop the heightened tensions in Syria. The European Union also planned to issue tougher sanctions to Syria which EU believes is enough to give pressure to the current Syrian administration. France, Britain and Germany have recently given a positive sign that they will likely support the tightening policies toward Damascus.

Posted by James Fried on Saturday August 13 2011, 4:37 AM EST. Ref: Reuters. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under World. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0