Will EU Foreign Ministers discuss sanctions against Lukashenko?
- 25.06.2012, 9:20
The situation in Belarus, Syria and Iran will discuss in Luxembourg today.
The EU has said it does not rule out adding more people to its Belarus sanctions list so long as repression continues. Over 240 members of the Belarusian nomenklatura are currently forbidden from entering the EU or doing business in the single market.
The list includes Vladimir Peftiev and Yuriy Chizh, two oligarchs said to feed money to President Alexander Lukashenko, as well as an embargo on arms to Belarus and on goods that could be used for internal repression.
The EU has more top people in its crosshairs, such as Aleksandr Moshensky.
Moshensky, who runs a food and restaurant business called JV Santa Impex Brest, was instrumental in Lukashenko's 2010 presidential election campaign and is said to rank as the number three most influential tycoon behind Peftiev and Chizh.
The ministerial meeting, which will also focus on a range of bilateral, regional and international issues of common concern, including Iran and Egypt, will be co-chaired by Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal and EU high representative Catherine Ashton,
"The heightening crisis in Syria, the Iranian nuclear program and the situation in Egypt are among several topics on the agenda for the ministerial meeting," said Ahmed Al-Kabi, a spokesman of the GCC General Secretariat.
The meeting comes at a time when Turkey has blasted Syria for shooting and downing its military jet. The envoys from NATO member states are scheduled to meet on Tuesday following Turkey's request for consultations over the downing of its jet.
Turkey, in fact, raised the stakes in the growing crisis over the downed military aircraft, accusing Syria of "shooting its jet over international waters without warning and declaring that it would formally consult with its allies in the NATO on how to respond."
Referring to the heightening Syrian crisis, Al-Kabi pointed out that the ministers would discuss how to protect civilians in Syria, help Syrian rebels and stop the systematic genocide. The two blocs - GCC and EU - will also discuss the dimension of the bilateral cooperation, said the GCC spokesman.
There have also been reports that some Gulf states and Turkey are working on a proposal on how to aid the rebels and how to pay salaries to the rebel Free Syrian Army.
About the other subjects to be discussed by the GCC and EU foreign ministers, a GCC statement said that Iran would be taken up for discussion.