The EU adds three Al Assad ministers to its ‘blacklist’ for the repression of the civilian population in Syria

BRUSSELS Nov. 25 (EUROPA PRESS) –

This Monday, the European Union added three new ministers from Basar al Assad’s government in Syria to its ‘blacklist’ of those sanctioned for the continued repression of the Syrian civilian population.

Specifically, it is the new Minister of Internal Trade, Louai Emad el Din al Munajid; the re-elected Minister of Petroleum, Firas Hasan Qadour; and the Minister of State, Ahmed Mohamed Bustaji, to whom the EU attributes responsibility for the Syrian regime’s continued violent repression against the civilian population as part of Al Assad’s cabinet.

With this decision, the EU maintains sanctions against 318 Syrian people and 86 entities for their links with the Al Assad regime, when it deployed a panoply of measures due to the outbreak of the civil war after the uprisings during the Arab Spring.

This decision comes in parallel with the debates within the EU to appoint a special envoy for Syria, with the focus on the until now EU ambassador to Egypt, Christian Berger.

This step is accompanied by a substantive debate in the EU following the interest of a group of member states in resuming relations with Damascus, more than a decade after the start of the civil war. In particular, a series of countries such as Cyprus or Italy are interested in Syria being declared a safe zone and being able to cooperate to welcome refugees and migrants who are in Europe.