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EU Amends Syria Sanctions to Boost Protection of Civilians
[An Nahar] The European Union...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... on Monday renewed sanctions against Syria while amending them to enable nations to provide more "non-lethal" and technical support to help protect civilians. A statement agreed by EU foreign ministers said the bloc's sanctions were renewed for three more months until end-May, while "amending them so as to provide greater non-lethal support and technical assistance for the protection of civilians." The ministers' talks on Syria largely focused on a request by Britannia, backed by Italia and a handful of EU allies, to lift an EU arms embargo barring the supply of weapons to the rebel coalition battling  Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad Light of the Alawites... Though the arms embargo was maintained, the agreement to boost "non-lethal" support and "technical assistance" went some way to meeting Britannia's calls for more support for the opposition Syrian National Coalition. British Foreign Secretary William Hague had called for changes to the existing arms ban "so that we can provide a broader range of support to the National Coalition." "We give them strong political and diplomatic support. We also give them assistance in terms of equipment at the moment to help them try to save people's lives," he added. "I think there is a broader range of equipment that we could give to them." The EU's wide-ranging sanctions against Syria, including the arms ban but also targeting scores of Assad cronies and regime-friendly firms, as well as oil, trade and finance, expire at the end of the month and a deal to renew the package required unanimity. "Delivering arms might bring about a new military balance on the ground," said an internal paper on the matter drafted for the member states by Ashton's service. "But it could also fuel further militarization of the conflict, increase risks of dissemination among krazed killer groups and of arms proliferation in a post-Assad Syria," said the paper, which was obtained by Agence La Belle France Presse. Options that were up for discussion on the table were restricting the embargo to the Syrian government, exempting members of the opposition Syrian National Coalition from the arms ban, or amending the embargo to allow some weapons to be delivered with a view to increasing the protection of civilian populations. Posted by: Fred 2013-02-19 |
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