Europe seizes on 'Syria's accountability law' to request stronger commitment on the weapons of mass destruction
Syria-European Union, Politics, 5/27/2004

The countries of the European union seized the chance of the "American sanctions on Syria and agreed yesterday to demand Damascus for stronger commitment to give up the weapons of mass destruction for signing the partnership agreement.

The agreement among the ambassadors of the European Union ends a European bottleneck that lasted for five months over the stumbled Association Agreement and comes two weeks after the US President George W. Bush prescribed sanctions on Damascus.

The ambassadors of the European Union supported tougher procedures over fighting the dissemination of the nuclear, biological and chemical weapons in preparation for the expected association agreement with Syria.

Britain, germany, and Holland had opposed the orginal text which the European Commission negotiated with Syria in December 2003 saying it is not up to the commitment of the European Union to have fighting the Weapons of Mass destruction an important principle in relations with other countries. So far Damascus refuses to renegotiate over the draft Association Agreement (AA), stressing that there is no reason justifying the imposition of tougher conditions on Syria more than those it imposes on other Mediterranean partners like Israel which has a large nuclear arsenals.

In Damascus, the Syrian minister of the economy Ghassan al-Refaee said that Syria "has the desire to finalize this agreement and continued desire to dialogue." He added " there is an agreement on the technical side in general and on the political part.. It is a matter of dialogue and the dialogue is continuous.. I do think there are positive indications. " But al-Refaee renewed saying that Syria will not give up what he described " declared principles," in remarks to issues relating to the Arab- Israeli conflict.

Diplomats said that Denmark and Holland showed satisfaction over the project while British and Germany said in preliminary talks on Tuesday they will endorse it after making statements.

Previous Stories:
  Europe discusses partnership with Damascus despite Washington's sanctions   (5/17/2004)
  Syria's interventions at Dublin's meeting by al-Shara   (5/7/2004)
  Dutch and German flexibility, the complex is with Britain, Partnership with Syria to be discussed on May 17   (5/6/2004)

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