On Monday 19 March, the EU Council imposed sanctions on a high ranking military official – the head of security at the Scientific Studies and Research Centre (SSRC) – and three Syrian scientists, including two doctors, for their role in the development of chemical weapons and their use against the civilian population. The sanctions were in line with the EU Council's policy on the fight against the proliferation of chemical weapons and their use.
These four people all work at the SSRC, the public body responsible for the development and production of non-conventional weapons, including chemical weapons, and the missiles to deliver them. The SSCR has been under EU restrictive measures since 1 December 2011 (see EUROPE 10507).
At the end of the meeting, during which the ministers met UN Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura, Mogherini stated that there is a "clear escalation" on the ground. The EU remains "among the few voices of reason and good sense to invite the full implementation of the latest UN resolution, and all the parties, particularly Russia, Iran and Turkey, to work on areas of de-escalation". "We will never stop calling for an end to the hostilities and to the intra-Syrian discussions in Geneva", she said.
When she arrived at the Council, Mogherini had singled out the three guarantors of Astana, calling on them to show "coherence". While the first two are helping the Syrian regime in the fighting in eastern Ghouta, the last took the Kurdish town of Afrin on Sunday 18 March. "The military activities indirectly directed against Daesh or Al-Nusra – the terrorist organisations listed by the UN – should totally be avoided, because the right direction and common work aim to defuse the military activities and not intensify them", she said, before adding: "if you have worked on de-escalation zones, you must take care of these zones and ensure that this is indeed what is happening on the ground". (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)