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EU to impose new sanctions against Syria

18 April 2012 03:09 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The European Union (EU) will impose new sanctions against Syria, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton told the European Parliament on Tuesday in Strasbourg, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

Ashton said the EU was ready to continue to impose sanctions and restrictive measures as long as what she calls the "repression" continues in Syria.

"The last round of EU sanctions was approved in the Foreign Affairs Council of 23 March and we are already working on new set of sanctions and restrictive measures," she said, "Today my team is in Paris taking a leading role in the meeting of the Working Group on sanctions created at the Istanbul meeting."

Ashton said the situation in Syria remained fragile and unstable. She urged the Syrian authority to fully implement the UN-League of Arab States Special Envoy Kofi Annan’s six point plan.

"This is not a matter of choice. The six point plan is not optional. The government must implement it fully: troops and heavy weapons must be withdrawn from population centers, peaceful demonstrations and freedom of association must be respected, provision of humanitarian assistance to all areas affected by the fighting must be ensured," she said.

"It is also important that our Delegation remains open in Damascus for as long as the security situation permits," Ashton added.

The EU has imposed 13 rounds of sanctions against Syria, since the beginning of unrest one year ago, which brings the number of designated persons to 126 and the total of targeted entities to 41.