European Union governments have agreed to impose additional financial sanctions on the government of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad over a crackdown on pro-democracy protests.
The new measures include a ban on long-term financial support for trade, excluding food and medicine, and on loans to the government, both bilateral and through international financial institutions.
Under the new measures, to be approved formally by EU foreign ministers on Thursday, EU companies will also be prohibited from trading in Syrian state debt. Banks from Syria will also be banned from opening branches in EU countries or investing in European banks.
"All these measures are aimed at cutting off the financial flows to the Syrian government," said an EU diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Syrians protested today in state-backed rallies against unprecedented economic sanctions imposed by the Arab League.
State television showed rallies "supporting national unity and rejecting foreign interference" in the capital Damascus and the second city of Aleppo. There were demonstrations also in the eastern cities of Deir al-Zor and Hasaka, the TV said.
The Arab League approved the sanctions against Syria yesteray, the toughest imposed against a member state, isolating Assad's government over repression now in its ninth month which the United Nations says has killed 3,500 people.
The European Union said the sanctions were a further "reaction to the regime's brutality and unwillingness to change course", and Britain said they could help enlist support at the United Nations for action against Damascus.
But Syria's closest trading partners, Lebanon and Iraq, said they would not support the Arab League measures, and the actual economic impact could be less severe than proposed.
"We do not agree with these sanctions and we will not go along with them," Lebanese foreign minister Adnan Mansour said in Beirut.
Lebanon believes along with Iraq that the sanctions - which fall short of a full trade embargo - could harm their interests.
Anti-Assad activists in Syria said yesterday that security forces had killed at least 24 civilians, many in a town north of Damascus that has become a focus for the protests. Others were killed in raids on towns in the province of Homs.
Reuters