In the coming days, the European Council – which includes the heads of State or Government of the 28 EU member States, the President of the European Commission and the President of the European Council – will be called to discuss whether or not to prolong the restrictive measures against the Syrian regime adopted five years, which expire on June 1. The measures due to be re-examined, include, inter alia, the restrictions on certain equipment that might be used for internal repression, ban on the import of weapons, oil, gas, telecommunications, technology to intercept and monitor, ban on trade in gold, precious metals and diamonds with Syrian public bodies, the prohibition to participate in the construction of new plants for the production of electricity in Syria, issuance of bonds, restrictions on cooperation with Syrian banks, travel restrictions for some people (visa and travel ban). The assets of specific individuals and bodies are frozen. The sanctions, clarifies a factsheet of the EU Council, titled “EU Restrictive measures”, are one of the EU’s tools to promote the objectives of the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP): peace, democracy and the respect for the rule of law, human rights and international law. They are always part of a comprehensive policy approach involving political dialogue and complementary efforts. Sanctions re not punitive, but designed to bring about a change in policy or activity by the target country, entities or individuals.
the EU makes every effort to minimise adverse consequences for the civilian population or for legitimate activities.”
The embargo weighs heavily on the population. A few days ago, an appeal titled “Stop sanctions against the Syrian population” was launched by members of the Catholic Church in Syria. Among the signatories of the petition figure Bishop Georges Abou Khazen (Apostolic Vicar of Aleppo for the Catholic Latin Rite), Maronite Archbishop of Aleppo Joseph Tobji, Monsignor Jean Clément Jeanbart, Greek Catholic Archbishop of Aleppo, Armenian Catholic Archbishop of Aleppo Boutros Marayati, Monsignor Jacques Behnan Hindo, Syrian Catholic Bishop of Hassaké-Nisibi and Gregory III Laham, Patriarch of the Melkites, along with men and women religious from various orders and institutes in the Syrian territory.
The appeal of the Churches. The text of the petition reiterates: “In these five years the sanctions on Syria have helped destroy the Syrian society, condemning it to hunger, epidemics, poverty, encouraging activism of fundamentalist militia fighters who now also strike in Europe. They add on to a war that has already caused the death of 250 thousand people and six million refugees. Rather unexplainably, in 2012 the oil embargo in the areas controlled by the armed and jihadist opposition was removed, in order to provide economic resources to the so-called ‘revolutionary forces of the opposition’.”
“Food shortage, widespread unemployment, impossibility to access medical care, rationing of drinking water, electricity” are the direct consequences of the sanctions,
which make it “impossible even for the Syrians who settled abroad before the war to send money to their relatives or family members left behind. “Syrians see the possibility of a viable future for families only if they run away from their land”, but “escaping cannot be the only solution that the international community can propose to these poor people.”
Hence the petitions of the appeal demand that
“sanctions that affect the daily lives of every Syrian be immediately removed”.
“The longed-for peace cannot be separated from concrete concerns for those who today are suffering because of an embargo that impacts the entire population.” Moreover, “the rhetoric on refugees fleeing the Syrian war appears hypocritical if at the same time the population continues to starve, whilst impeding healthcare, denying drinking water, work, security, dignity to those who remain in Syria.” For these reasons, write the signatories, ”
we call upon MPs and the mayors in every Country” to ask for “the iniquity of sanctions on Syria to be made known to the citizens of the European Union and become, finally, the subject of a serious debate and consequent resolutions”.
Past May 20 the petition was submitted, in alia, to the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini, to Italian Premier Matteo Renzi, to Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni. To date, the online petition available on the platform Change.org, was signed by over 3300 people.
