Syria condemns extension of European sanctions, warns of the EU approach
Damascus – Syria strongly condemned the decision of the Council of the European Union (EU) to extend the unilaterally-imposed restrictive measures against it for another year.
In its decision issued last Thursday, the Council of the European Union extended sanctions it has gradually imposed on Syria since 2011, which have worked in favor of the terrorists operating in Syria and are aimed at pressuring the Syrian government and people into changing their position.
The decision reveals unequivocally that the EU is “complicit in the conspiracy against Syria,” an official source at the Foreign and Expatriates Ministry told SANA on Sunday.
This complicity is evident in some of the EU’s member states providing all forms of support, including armament, to the terrorist groups, the source said.
Other evidence of this complicity, he added, is the attempts by those states to frustrate the initiatives and efforts seeking a settlement for the crisis in Syria.
The source dismissed these measures as “unfair”, saying they directly target the Syrian people in their livelihood and health.
The European sanctions have covered almost every vital sector in Syria, including health, oil, electricity and food, further aggravating the suffering of the Syrian people.
The source expressed Syria’s appeal to “the free voices” within the EU “which have openly expressed their annoyance at the approach which France and Britain impose on other member states in terms of implicating the latter in policies that are against the EU’s interests.”
These “free voices,” the source said, are called upon to put an end to these “wrong policies” that give up principles and values in favor of their advocates’ colonialist ambitions and the material interests they share with the oil-rich Gulf monarchies.
The source warned that this approach of the EU constitutes “a serious threat” to the security, stability and peace in the EU countries not just in Syria and the region considering that terrorism would not be confined to border of the latter.
SANA