West, Arabs persist in penalizing Syria
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Xinhua, December 2, 2011
Syria seems to be in a tight squeeze as the Western and Arab countries are turning the screws on the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad by carrying on with sanctions.
The sanctions have been upped on Syria over the past week in an effort to further suffocate its already-stagnating economy, which would rebound on the livelihood of the Syrians and push them to take tougher positions against the regime.
The European Union member states and the United States have worked on the economic sanctions on Syria since the very beginning of the events in Syria, and the Arab countries have recently followed the lead.
European foreign ministers, currently meeting in Brussels, are considering new extensive sanctions that would target 12 people and 11 companies, in addition to its previous sanctions that hit Syria's oil sector, a number of governmental entities, prominent figures and businessmen.
In a retaliatory move, Syria announced Thursday its boycott to the Union for the Mediterranean, a regional alliance consisting of the 27 EU member states and 16 neighbor countries, "until Europe abrogates its sanctions," according to a foreign ministry statement. "The EU has undertaken a series of unwarranted sanctions that targeted the livelihood of the Syrian people," said the statement, adding that the sanctions entail a flagrant violation of Syria's national sovereignty and interfere in the country's internal affairs, contrary to the essence of the signed agreements between the EU and Syria.
The latest EU move coincided with a new United Nations report that put the number of people killed in Syria over the past eight months at "much more" than 4,000.
The EU sanctions came just one day after Turkey announced its sanctions against Syria, which included a freeze of the Syrian government's assets in Turkey, a travel ban on Syrian leaders, a halt of the relations between the Turkish and Syrian central banks, and a block to the delivery of all weapons and military equipment to Syria through Turkey.
On Wednesday, the United States lauded the Turkish sanctions on Syria and called on other countries to close ranks in upping the pressure against the Assad government.
"We commend the Turkish government for its announcement of economic sanctions and other measures against the Syrian regime," Tommy Vietor, spokesman of the White House National Security Council, said in a statement.
In response, Syria's government-owned Tishrin daily said Thursday that the Turkish economic sanctions aim to harm the interests of the Syrian people and undermine Syria's stances against the U.S. plans to control the region.
The Turkish measures violate all economic and trade cooperation rules between the two countries, and their implications will appear simultaneously on both sides as they affect the business activities, the paper said in its front page editorial.
The arm embargo by Turkey, came apparently in defiance to the latest Russian stance that rejected any arms embargo on Syria. On Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that lessons should be learnt from the situation in Libya, where an embargo on arms supplies was "only applied to the Libyan army."
In a renewed stance on Thursday, Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said that "Russia sees no reasons to stop its arms exports to Syria."
"Russia will do whatever is not prohibited by norms, rules or agreements," Ivanov said, adding that the European sanctions against Syria would not restrict Russia's arms supplies to Syria.
Earlier in November, Lavrov warned that external forces were seeking to deteriorate the situation in Syria in order to justify their interference in Syria's internal political affairs.
For their side, the Arab League (AL) on Monday hit Syria with economic sanctions after Damascus missed the deadline to sign a draft protocol to allow hundreds of observers into the country as part of a peace deal it had agreed on early this month.
However, Syria said the protocol represented an encroachment on Syria's sovereignty, and accused the AL of acting out a foreign agenda for the interests of the United States and its European allies.
The AL sanctions included freezing the Syrian government's funds, halting the commercial business with the Syrian government except strategic commodities that affect people's life, as well as suspending flights to Syria and banning some Syrian officials from traveling to other Arab countries.
On Thursday, the AL decided to put 17 Syrian officials on its travel ban list, including Syria's defense and interior ministers, intelligence chief, a businessman and some military figures.
The technical committee in charge of studying the sanctions also suggested stopping flights to and from Syria in mid-December while allowing goods like wheat, medicine, gas and electricity to Syria, according to the report.
Syria has said it can survive the sanctions owing to its self- sufficient economy and other new measures by its government.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem has recently accused the AL of attempting to internationalize the Syrian crisis and urged the Arab countries to control their borders to prevent weapons from being smuggled into Syria.
Moallem lambasted the Arab and other countries for turning a blind eye to the violent acts committed by armed groups inside Syria.
His cries were echoed by a report published by the Russian newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda. The paper has said that Syria is under increasing pressure by the West and the AL, which talk about human rights violations "by the Syrian regime and completely ignore what insurgents really do on ground."
The paper said that Libya's new leaders are supplying Syrian rebels with money, weapons and fighters, warning that a military invasion is looming.
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