On Monday 10 October, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini announced that the EU was studying options for ensuring the political space is kept open for finding a solution to the Syrian problem. The question will be discussed over lunch at the Foreign Affairs Council in Luxembourg on Monday 17 October.
"If you think that there is only a political solution, you have to create the political space for talks. This requires good will, from all sides, and there are plenty of question marks about that in these days. But that also requires patience, I would say even stubbornness, and the European Union has proved to be resilient in this respect", Mogherini explained at a conference in Stockholm with Swedish foreign minister Margot Wallström. "The worst political thing that can happen now is that the political space for a political solution closes definitively and the voice is only the one of the arms. This is something we cannot allow (…) the EU is ready to do its part on the diplomatic and political and channel", Mogherini added.
A European source says Mogherini’s key objective is to keep political roads open and while member states like Germany favour sanctions against Russia over Syria, other countries, such as France, are reluctant to take this route. A diplomatic source says Russia’s action in Syria would justify the non-lifting of current sanctions rather than new sanctions as there are already a lot of sanctions against Russia over the crisis in Ukraine. Several sources told EUROPE that there were not any sanction plans on the table and it was just media speculation for the moment.
Tension rose further on 8 October when Russia vetoed a French and Spanish resolution at the UN Security Council that called for an end to the bombing of Aleppo. This was followed by rejection of a Russian resolution calling for an end of hostility, but not calling specifically for an end to the bombing of Aleppo. Speaking in Stockholm, Mogherini said: "To me, it has been very sad to see the Security Council in such a stalemate and especially Russia using its veto on a resolution that was backed by so many members of the UN. It is indeed extremely important that we preserve the political space for dialogue and diplomacy". (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)