PARIS —
European Union foreign ministers have agreed to ease an oil embargo
against Syria to help rebel forces fighting the government of Syrian
President Bashar el-Assad. The move follows a decision by the United
States to dramatically increase aid to the Syrian opposition.
Speaking to reporters in Luxembourg, European Union foreign policy
chief Catherine Ashton said the bloc's agreement to ease an oil embargo
against Syria will help the opposition Syrian National Coalition take
advantage of oil and gas reserves under its control.
"Three
types of transactions will now be possible: imports of oil and petroleum
products; exports of key equipment and technology for the oil and gas
industry; and investments in the Syrian oil industry. We've made the
energy our priority to ensure the changes have a rapid impact," said
Ashton.
The decision by the EU foreign ministers comes a day
after Secretary of State John Kerry announced the United States would
double to $250 million its nonlethal assistance to Syria's opposition
forces.
Speaking after Monday's meeting, British Foreign
Secretary William Hague acknowledged that more needed to be done to help
the Syrian opposition.
"It is a tragedy that we've not been
able to agree a U.N. Security Council resolution to require a political
process to take place," said Hague. "We will keep working on that. But
in the absence of that, as we have been discussing here today and as I
have been arguing, we will need to do more to support the National
Coalition, to protect people in Syria, to save lives in Syria, to
support the opposition."
Britain and France have also been
pushing to lift an EU embargo against arming Syria's rebellion. The
current embargo is set to expire at the end of May. But some EU
countries like Germany are reluctant to arm the rebels, fearing the
weapons could fall into the wrong hands. Those reservations were aired
again Monday by German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle.
Westerwelle says Germany has serious concerns the arms could end up in
the hands of terrorists. But he said if other European countries reach
their own conclusions that go in a different direction, Germany will
respect this.
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