The European Union decided on Thursday to freeze the assets of the Commercial Bank of Syria, in a new set of sanctions over the Syrian regime’s brutal crackdown of protesters, diplomats said. “Today’s decision is a direct consequence of the appalling and brutal campaign the Syrian regime is waging against its own people,” said EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.
“Our measures are not aimed at the Syrian people, but aim to deprive the regime of financial revenues and the support base necessary to maintain the repression,” she said. An EU statement said the 27-nation bloc had agreed to freeze the assets of an entity that “financially supports the regime.”
The statement did not name the entity, but diplomats said it was the Commercial Bank of Syria, which was already sanctioned by the United States in August over its alleged financing of Syrian missiles and unconventional weapons.
The sanctions will be published in the EU Official Journal today (Friday). It will bring the number of Syrian entities targeted by an EU asset freeze to 19. It is the eighth round of sanctions imposed by the EU against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. The EU has prohibited the delivery of bank notes to the Syrian central bank, and banned oil imports and investments in the oil sector. It also imposed an EU travel ban and assets freeze on Assad and his closest associates.
