“Sanctions play its part in absolutely making it clear by our economic and political moves what we think,” declared EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, at a press conference after EU Foreign Ministers agree on new tougher sanctions against Iran and Syria at their monthly meeting Monday in Luxembourg.
But she was forced to fend off suggestions that the EU’s favoured programme of sanctions and diplomacy has proved inadequate in both ongoing crises.
Having earlier in the day announced a 19th set of sanctions against Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime as part of its 19 month-long conflict against civilians, bringing the total of sanctioned individuals to 181 as well as 54 entities, she denied that the EU’s chosen policy was ineffective, insisting: “I don’t think sanctions is a strategy, they’re a tool you use as part of a strategy.”
Continuing to develop on the extensive lobbying the EU has been a part of in attempting to bring all facets of the international community to a consensus on the way forward in Syria, she added that sanctions “send a signal to not just the regime itself but also to all those around that this is a serious issue, that we have made it clear that Assad must go”.
Describing recent attacks on Turkish territory by Syria as “unacceptable”, she commended Turkey for doing a “very important” job in helping to resolve the conflict, “first of all, under its constitution to get parliamentary approval to be able to respond if necessary, but really calling on the Syrian authorities to stop the spillover (of violence from Syria to neighbouring countries) and to do all it can to calm situation while being clear it will respond (to any threats to its sovereignty)”.
Turkey was subject to further praise by Ashton, as she spoke of the state providing “what has been a very high quality support for refugees”, insisting the administration was “very happy” with the level of support being providing for its support by the EU.
On the somewhat controversial subject of Russia’s continuing obstruction of UN Security Council efforts to exert economic and political pressure on its close ally Syria, she trod carefully, asserting that “Russia must make its own decisions about the risk of not engaging” with international consensus.
However, she conceded, “the critical issue for us is that whilst Russia does not engage with the UN Security Council, finding a way through this becomes more difficult”. On the eve of the ministerial meeting, Ashton and several EU Foreign Ministers met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Luxembourg.
Heralding the strong role Russia has played to date in the negotiation process with Iran over its contested nuclear weapons programme, Ashton added that “we would urge Russia to join with the rest of the security council, and we would say the same to China, to try to positively move forward on this”, suggesting that failure to do so would compromise the message to Assad that the international community “shouldn’t give in”.
“The more we can all work together, the better,” she added.
Russia plays “a very positive and constructive role” in Iranian diplomacy, she said, avoiding criticising any individual state for failing to uphold its international obligations, rather insisting that “if you belong to the international community and you’re part of a treaty, an agreement, you also have a responsibility to make sure it is upheld. And therefore, we do have that responsibility to put the pressure on, and the pressure is a way of saying we want you to comply, we want you to take your obligations seriously and we will continue that pressure”.
Devoting much of the press conference to the international community’s continued preoccupation with the Syrian crisis, she placed increasing emphasis on looking to the post-conflict phase, claiming:
“One of the things we need to be mindful of is that we need to be ready when this conflict ends and when people start to try to pick up the pieces, that we are there to help them in every possible way, and that means rebuilding the infrastructure, rebuilding the economy and helping people deal with the effects of such terrible, terrible trauma over such a long period of time.”
Speaking of the need to temper a realistic attitude to the scale of work yet to be achieved in the civil wartorn country with optimism for its future, she concluded: “The situation is terrible, but we have to keep going on all these different tracks in order to try to get a resolution and make it clear to people that we’ll be there for them when this ends and to try and rebuild the country.”