الرئيسية
Arab League Secretary General Nabil al-Arabi arrives at
EU headquarters in Brussels. Europe and the United States tightened
economic sanctions on Syria, ramping up international pressure as the UN
said more than 4,000 people had died in a crackdown on
dissidents.(AFP/Georges Gobet)
Lebanese banks tighten control on Syrian account holders
Russia 'delivers missiles to Syria'
Kuwait urges nationals to leave Syria
By Laurent Thomet, AFP
BRUSSELS (AFP) - Europe and the United States tightened
economic sanctions on Syria, ramping up international pressure as the UN
said more than 4,000 people had died in a crackdown on dissidents.
In
a new bout of violence, a Syrian human rights group said troops raided
towns and villages in the flashpoint provinces of Homs, Hama and Daraa,
killing 16 civilians and detaining at least two dozen others.
At
least 4,000 people have now died since anti-government protests broke
out in mid-March, UN rights chief Navi Pillay said, warning the real
toll could be grimmer still as "the information coming to us is that
it's much more".
EU foreign ministers met Arab League secretary
general Nabil al-Arabi over lunch in Brussels in a bid to show a united
front against President Bashar al-Assad's crackdown on protesters.
The ministers agreed to work with the League as it implements unprecedented sanctions against Assad's regime.
"They
believe that this could have a strong effect on the regime. They are
continuing to put the pressure on, we are very keen to support their
leadership on that," EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said after
the talks.
For his part, Arabi rejected "any accusation that the
Arab League is inviting any intervention" in Syria after Damascus
accused members of the pan-Arab organisation of pushing for an
"internationalisation" of the unrest.
The EU slapped a 10th round
of sanctions on the regime, adding bans on exporting gas and oil
industry equipment to Syria and trading Syrian government bonds in an
effort to choke off funding.
The EU will refrain from offering
Syria loans at lower rates and longer grace periods than offered on
commercial markets, while European firms are barred from selling
software that could be used to monitor Internet and telephone
communications.
The EU added 12 individuals and 11 entities to a
blacklist of people and companies hit by asset freezes and travel bans,
diplomats said.
"All this shows, that we Europeans, together with
the Arab League, are determined to act against this cruelty and
repression," said German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle.
Renewing
a call for Assad to step aside for a democratic transition, the EU
ministers warned in a statement that the violent repression risked
taking Syria down "a very dangerous path of violence, sectarian clashes
and militarisation".
Syria meanwhile suspended its free trade
agreement with Turkey, the official news agency SANA said, in
retaliation for Ankara slapping sanctions on the Damascus regime.
Turkey,
one of Syria's closest economic partners, followed in the footsteps of
the Arab League on Wednesday in announcing a series of sanctions on the
Syrian regime, including a freeze on commercial transactions and a break
in links between the Turkish and Syrian central banks.
The
United States welcomed the EU sanctions against Syria as well as other
measures against Iran, an ally of Damascus, over Tehran's disputed
nuclear activities.
"These steps signal once again the resolve of
the international community to address the assault on the fundamental
rights of the Syrian people by the Assad regime," the White House said.
Washington
slapped economic sanctions on a top Syrian general and an uncle of
Assad identified by the Treasury Department as a key financial advisor
to the Syrian president.
The US measures also hit a defence
ministry business, the Military Housing Establishment, and the
government-controlled Real Estate Bank, which the Treasury said
administers the government's borrowings.
Angry at the sanctions,
Syria suspended its participation in the Mediterranean Union, a French
initiative inaugurated in 2008 to bolster cooperation between Europe,
the Middle East and north Africa.
Meanwhile, the Syrian National
Council, a civilian opposition group, said it has agreed to coordinate
with the rebel Free Syrian Army in their common struggle against Assad.
"It
is agreed that it would be a coordinated movement," the SNC's Khaled
Khoja told AFP, in a change of tack from the civilian opposition's
previous reluctance to back the armed faction.
He said a meeting
in the southern Turkish province of Hatay on November 28 was attended by
SNC head Burhan Ghaliun and FSA chief Riyadh al-Asaad, whose forces
comprise Syrian deserters.
"The council recognised the Free
Syrian Army as a reality, while the army recognised the council as the
political representative" of the opposition, Khoja said.
The meeting marked a new step in efforts to unite opposition to Assad, who is under growing pressure to step down.
"We
agreed that the duty of the Free Syrian Army is to protect people, but
not to attack," said Khoja, a member of the SNC's foreign relations
committee.
The FSA's duties, he said, include "protecting
minorities, preventing possible conflicts among the factions by sending
its troops to conflict areas".
