EU sanctions Syrian foreign affairs minister

Syrian Foreign Affairs Minister Faisal Mekdad’s assets in the European Union have been frozen and he will no longer be able to travel to the bloc, after the EU Council decided to sanction him. “The Council today decided to add Faisal Mekdad to the list of persons subject to EU restrictive measures on Syria, in light of his recent appointment as Minister of Foreign Affairs’’, a press release said. Mekdad was appointed foreign minister when his predecessor Walid al Moallem died in November. Mekdad had served as a deputy foreign minister since 2006. This brings the number of people sanctioned to 289. An additional 70 organisations are also subject to asset freezes. The sanctions were introduced in 2011 when the civil war in Syria broke out. The Assad government now once again controls a very large part of the country. They target companies and entrepreneurs “who benefit from their ties with the regime and from the war economy” are also subject to restrictive measures, according to a press release — dpa