Lebanon will not implement Syria sanctions, EU welcomes Arab League efforts

Lebanon will not implement Syria sanctions, EU welcomes Arab League efforts

Lebanon will not implement the Arab League's economic sanctions against Syria, Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour told Reuters on Monday, because it had not agreed to them and believed they could hurt Lebanon.

November 28, 2011 3:05 by Reuters

“We do not agree with these sanctions and we will not go along with them,” Mansour said.

Meanwhile the European Union on Monday welcomed unprecedented Arab League sanctions imposed on Syria, casting them as a response to the “brutality and unwillingness to change course” of the Damascus government.

“We welcome and support the decision taken by the Arab League,” said Maja Kocijancic, spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.

“Sanctions by the Arab League as well as the restrictive measures applied by the EU are a reaction to the regime’s brutality and unwillingness to chance course,” she said.

Arab states agreed on Sunday to impose economic measures – the toughest against a member state – that include a travel ban on top Syrian officials and a freeze on assets related to President Bashar al-Assad’s government.

EU governments are expected to approve on Thursday a new round of sanctions aimed at raising pressure on Assad over his military crackdown on an eight-month-old wave of popular unrest. (Reporting by Laila Bassam and Justyna Pawlak; Editing by Louise Ireland)