The European Union has expanded its financial and travel sanctions against Syria and moved to condemn its brutal crackdown on anti-government protesters.
The EU on Friday announced it froze the assets and banned European travel of seven more individuals and four companies, bringing its overall list to 34, including Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Among others, the new sanctions targeted three commanders of Iran's Revolutionary Guard the EU accused of supporting Assad's three-month effort to quell dissent in the Arab nation.
The Iranians were identified as Major General Qasem Soleimani and Brigadier Commander Mohammad Ali Jafari of the Revolutionary Guard, as well as the guard's deputy commander for intelligence, Hossein Taeb.
The EU also imposed sanctions on a Syrian property company, an investment fund and two other enterprises it accused of funding Assad's government.
Later on Friday, at a meeting in Brussels, EU leaders were set to adopt a declaration condemning what a draft said was Syria's "unacceptable and shocking violence" it was imposing on its citizens. The draft said that Syria's "path of repression" is "calling its legitimacy into question."
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
