AL, EU Forming United Front against Syria

Local Editor

Arab League Chief Nabil Arabijoined Thursday a meeting for the European Union on Syria, in a bid to team up pressure against Damascus.

EU foreign ministers hold talks, in Brussels, aimed at forming a united front to stop Syria from “violently repressing protesters”.
EU foreign policy Chief Catherine Ashton said she was "very pleased" with the “unprecedented” sanctions that the Arab League slapped on Syria last weekend.

She said that the Union was set to adopt a new raft of EU sanctions against Damascus, adding that Arabi would try to determine over lunch "the best and most appropriate ways that we can collaborate”.

"We want to work with the Arab League to discuss how they want to go forward and how effective they think their sanctions are going to be", Ashton said.

For his part, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said the Arab League sanctions were "historic" and that the EU would discuss how "we synchronize our measures."
"I think it is very important that our answer to the repression and to the atrocities in Syria is a united answer," he said, adding that Europeans would also keep trying to get a UN Security Council resolution on Syria.

The EU will also add 12 more individuals and 11 more entities to a blacklist of people and companies hit by assets freezes and travel bans over the regime's crackdown on protesters, diplomats said.
The EU has passed nine rounds of sanctions against Syria, placing 74 people on the list, including Assad, enforcing an arms embargo and banning imports of Syrian crude oil.

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