EU Decision to Release Syrian Frozen Assets to Finance CW Elimination Violates International Law, UN Charter

DAMASCUS- Within the framework of the European Union’s illegal procedures against Syria, the EU foreign ministers on Monday decided to amend the anti-Syria restricting procedures and to allow releasing some of the Syrian frozen assets at the European Union aiming to fund the process of eliminating chemical weapons in Syria, a Foreign and Expatriates Ministry source said on Tuesday.

The source added that the EU procedure violated the rules of the decision of the Organization for Prohibiting Chemical Weapons (OPCW) Executive Bureau which provides for establishing a credit fund, through voluntary contributions by member countries, to pay the costs of eliminating Syrian chemical weapons after Syria had informed the OPCW about its being unable to afford the cost of the process.

According to the source, the ministry said “the procedure, which is an attempt to evade commitment to international obligations towards financing the process of destroying the Syrian chemical weapons, expresses the hypocrite and equivocating policy of some influential European countries.”

It pointed out that “the EU makes such a decision while strongly rejects releasing frozen assets to finance food and medicine supplies to the Syrian people affected by the armed terrorist groups’ crimes.

The source stressed that the ministry “condemns such a selective European procedure, yet urges the EU countries to immediately lift their unfair and immoral sanctions imposed on Syria and stop violating the international law by arming the terrorist groups which continue to shed the Syrian blood.

The sources concluded by stressing that the ministry stressed that the Syrian assets frozen by countries of the European Union, were the property of the Syrian state and people and that any act targeting these assets was illegal and a blatant violation of the Syrian sovereignty.

H. Mustafa