Brussels, 09/05/2011 (Agence Europe) - France continues to bring pressure to bear for European sanctions against the Syrian regime, which were adopted on Friday 6 May, to be extended to President Bashar al-Assad. On Friday, the ambassadors of the member states to the Political and Security Committee (Cops) approved a freezing of assets and visa ban against 13 high-level members of the Syrian government, but leaving out the main person responsible for the repression of demonstrations, Bashar al-Assad (see EUROPE 10373). A group of countries led by France is reported to have called for the Syrian head of state to be included on the list of sanctioned persons, but other delegations, led by Germany and Spain, successfully defended a more flexible approach. Paris welcomes the unanimous approval of the sanctions, but stresses that this should be a “first step”, to be followed by others, leaving out none of those responsible for the repression. “France is in favour of tough sanctions against all those responsible for this policy of repression, with no exceptions”, a spokesperson for the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on 6 May. “We will be working without delay with our partners in the Union to extend these measures and the list of persons affected by them, including the highest-level Syrian leaders, in light of current developments”, he added.
In the meantime, the leader of the Liberal group (ALDE) at the European Parliament, Guy Verhofstadt, has also spoken in favour of sanctions directly targeting the Syrian president and his family. The EU should freeze the assets of all members of the Assad family, ban them from entering the territory of the EU and declare that no other members of the Assad family can in future be considered to be the legitimate representative of the Syrian people, Verhofstadt said. The European Parliament, which meets this week for its plenary session in Strasbourg, will debate the situation in Syria with Catherine Ashton on Wednesday 11 May. “The time for hesitation and delay has gone. We expect a clear and unequivocal message from the high representative of the EU for foreign affairs ahead of Wednesday's debate”, said Verhofstadt. (H.B./transl.fl)