‘Sham’ Syrian constitution vote wins 89.4 per cent approval

The move came as France’s president Nicolas Sarkozy says that plans to
evacuate two wounded foreign journalists from a besieged Syrian town are
beginning to take shape.

Mr Sarkozy told French radio RTL on Monday that “we have the beginning of
a solution” to evacuate Paul Conroy and Edith Bouvier, the British and
French journalists trapped in Baba Amr neighborhood of the Syrian city of
Homs.

The ban on Syrian cargo flights to the EU, has a loophole, if aircraft are
carrying any passengers they will be given the all clear.

Britain and other countries had also urged a ban on phosphate imports from
Syria, the country’s sixth largest exports industry with 40 per cent of
trade accounted for by the EU.

But Greece which is one of the main buyers of Syrian phosphates in Europe,
opposed the ban because it is facing a major slump and debt crisis.

Other countries, doing extensive business with Syria, argued against full
sanctions against the Syrian central bank, fearing that the measures would
halt all trade.

A proposal to ban commercial flights between Europe and Syria was dropped as
it would complicate efforts to evacuate European citizens, such as the
journalists caught up in Homs fighting.

The EU has already imposed oil and arms embargoes against Syria in response to
a government suppression of dissent that has left more than 7,600 people
dead, according to rights groups, since anti-regime protests erupted in
March.

William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, called for more sanctions against Syria
in the wake of continuing “appalling” violence.

The lack of a UN Security Council declaration has weakened international
diplomatic efforts to end the violence, and Mr Hague warned Russia and
China’s veto was seen as wrong “in the eyes of the world”.

He said new efforts to get a UN resolution would be taken up once morein New
York later this week.

EU foreign ministers will also endorse Friday’s Tunis statement calling on the
Syrian leader to step down and urging the setting up of a UN peacekeeping
force.

Mr Hague dismissed Sunday’s Syrian “referendum” as of no relevance
to international efforts to impose a “diplomatic and economic
stranglehold on the Assad regime” to “choke off support for its
campaign of terror”.

But the Foreign Secretary is against arming the Syrian opposition.

On Monday, he welcomed the Arab League’s support and its readiness to join
peacekeeping efforts, but pointed out: “For that to work, there has to
be a peace to keep.”

The trapped journalists, Conroy and Bouvier were wounded in a government
attack on a makeshift media centre on Wednesday.

Sunday Times correspondent Marie Colvin and French photographer Remi Ochlik
were killed in the same attack.

Mr Sarkozy said “it seems that things are starting to get unblocked”
after days of failed attempts to evacuate the wounded reporters and the
bodies of the dead. He did not provide details.

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