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European Leaders Threaten Sanctions Against Syria

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Posted on Apr 26, 2011
Flickr / Martijn Munneke

British, French and Italian leaders say they will apply economic pressure against Syria if President Bashar al-Assad doesn’t end the violence against demonstrators. British Foreign Secretary William Hague, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi have all issued warnings.

The death toll in Syria now stands at more than 400 anti-government protesters killed by Assad’s regime since mid-March, and he has shown willingness to step up the repression. With NATO deepening its military role in Libya by the day, journalists and human rights groups are urging the world to pay attention to Syria also. They hope to battle public attention fatigue as pro-democracy movements continue to sweep the Middle East and Africa. —KDG

The Washington Post:

The influencial Paris newspaper Le Monde also pointed out the apparent incongruity in the policies of France and other Western countries. “We tolerate in Damascus what we condemned in Tripoli,” the paper said in a front-page editorial. “This indulgence is no longer possible. As Daraa is martyred, we must isolate and sanction the regime of Bashar al-Assad.”

Responding to the criticism, Sarkozy denied that there were inconsistencies in his policies. He pointed out that the two situations were not identical, but he then did not rule out taking action in Syria, according to news service accounts from Rome.

“That does not mean that we are going to intervene everywhere in the world,” he said. “There is no question of anything as long as there is no Security Council resolution.”

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Blackspeare's avatar

By Blackspeare, April 27, 2011 at 8:24 am Link to this comment

Of all the Arab countries, The Syrian dictatorship is the most entrenched.  Bashir al-Assad’s father established the rule of the Renaissance (Baath) Party and fairly quickly morphed into a corrupt cabal.  Basically, the philosophy of the Baath Party is akin to National Socialism which is defined as fascism.  The al-Assad family derives from the Alawite sect which believe in a mystical form of Islam more closely associate with Shia then with Sunni thus the reason for the close relationship between Syria and Iran.  The last thing Iran needs is for the Sunni majority to lead the government and replace the al-Assads.  So with the support of Iran, the Syrian cabal will violently and relentlessly stamp out any resistance.  And if one country knows how to do that expeditiously it is Syria.  Too bad there is no oil in Syria otherwise the UN might have taken stronger action.  Economic sanction will do little in a country already poor!

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doughboy's avatar

By doughboy, April 27, 2011 at 7:27 am Link to this comment

The outrage by Britain, France, US, and others, and therefore calls to action, seems
somewhat specious.  The death count in the six week plus revolt in Syria has
resulted in at least 400 protestors deaths and scores of government troops.  Yet
in only 17 days the Egyptian government killed 850—the official count. 
Apparently, it is not the number of dead or the length of time, but who is doing
the killing.  Condemnation and military intervention has not progressed much
since Bush 2’s “with us or against us.”  The “moral” seems to be that if you “suck-
up” to Washington, you can get away with a lot more murder.

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By Prasad, April 27, 2011 at 3:33 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Williams and Middleton’s wedding will be the most remarkable so most of the world news papers and t.v. channels are awaiting to capture their wedding events and also this wedding event is a hot topic at least for a month after wedding if she will be participate in some social activities so many people will remember them for their life long i wish both of them have a nice wedding.

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A Khokar's avatar

By A Khokar, April 26, 2011 at 5:34 pm Link to this comment

For last six decades, the Arab masses; they simply preferred their hibernation by keeping them secluded and detached from what all was going around them.

Meanwhile certain tyrant families in the entire Arab land by design formed a ‘Arab Dictators club’ and kept on ruling the masses by tightening the noose upon them by enforcing Emergency rules and banning of political life for the peoples. Now all of sudden the youth of today have given a wake up to alert the masses and have started demanding their freedom rights.

Whereas this has come as surprise for most of the member of ‘Arab Dictators Club’ as well as for intelligentsia but some of the more cunning tyrants have made the odd dictator Muammer Ghadafi a scapegoat to divert and ditch the popular uprising. In a way the crafted civil war in Libya has hijacked the subject uprising.

Eventually the Arab uprising has become a matter of buying the Arab masses by releasing money in the name of reforms and giving out other benefits.

  Ironically, the wealthy King of Saud may do it but not the country like Syria having no oil wealth at hand to dish out. In order to bring calmness in the Syrian streets; President Assad of Syria is expected to use its security forces to exercise their control which may result in killing on the streets for which; it is very much expected that after Libya, UN resolution may get passed against Syria.

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