Brussels, 17/04/2012 (Agence Europe) - French Foreign Minister Alain Juppé called on Tuesday 17 April for tougher sanctions against the Syrian regime, arguing that sanctions were proving effective. He said that, since sanctions had been put in place, Syria's financial reserves had fallen by half. “We must now keep up the pressure on the Syrian regime. This means tougher sanctions, which have an impact on the Syrian authorities”, he said at a working meeting of some 50 countries. “Sanctions are effective in depriving the Syrian regime of the resources it uses to fund its militia … and to acquire arms”, he added.
“We know that the Syrian authorities, whose financial reserves have, according to our information, been halved, are continuing actively to seek alternative ways to get round these sanctions”, he stated.
A French source said that, with the EU no longer buying 90% of Syrian oil production, production has fallen by 30%, equating to a monthly loss of $400 million for Damascus - $2 billion since November.
The sanctions put in place by the EU target, inter alia, the banking and financial sectors, and include a freeze on the assets of the Syrian central bank. (CG/transl.rt)