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EU and Syria
European Union governments are expected to ease a Syrian oil embargo next week in an effort to tilt the balance of the conflict against President Bashar al-Assad, Reuters reports.
At a meeting on Monday, EU foreign ministers will also agree to lift restrictions on selling equipment for the oil industry to the opposition and investing in the oil sector, EU diplomats said on Wednesday.Conditions will apply to ensure that no business is done with supporters of Assad."The purchases will be allowed when an EU government authorises them after consultations with the (opposition) National Council," one EU diplomat said.The EU imposed a ban on purchases of Syrian oil by European companies in 2011 in response to an uprising against Assad.
Meanwhile, the EU's humanitarian chief Kristalina Georgieva, has admitted that the international community can't cope with the crisis in Syria.
In an interview with al-Monitor she pointed out that only a third of the $1.5bn pledged at UN donor conference in Kuwait earlier this year had materialised. But she added that the crisis needed more than money. Georgieva said:
As a humanitarian commissioner I do not believe that we can cope anymore just with humanitarian budgets alone. We need to expand the instruments we deploy especially to south Lebanon and Jordan. We have to act now proactively, before it is too late for these countries to get the resources that will help them avoid the destabilizing impact of this crisis.
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