EU puts sanctions on Syrian officials after sarin gas attack

The European Union imposed sanctions on 16 Syrian scientists and military officials yesterday for their suspected involvement in a chemical attack in northern Syria in April that killed scores of civilians.

Western intelligence agencies accused the government of Bashar Al Assad of carrying out the attack and claimed that rebels in the area would not have had the capabilities.

The Organisation for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons said last month that the nerve agent sarin was used.

Syrian officials have denied using banned toxins.

The measures, agreed upon by EU foreign ministers at a meeting in Brussels, target eight Syrian scientists and eight senior military officials.

British foreign secretary Boris Johnson said they showed Europe’s resolve “in dealing with those who are responsible for chemical weapons attacks”.

This takes the number of people placed under EU sanctions related to the Syrian conflict to 255, the Council of the European Union said. EU sanctions are also in place on 67 companies linked to Mr Al Assad’s government.

Washington issued sanctions in the same month as the attack in the town of Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib province, placing restrictions on hundreds of employees and scientists at a Syrian government agency believed to have developed the chemical weapons.

Syria joined a chemicals weapons convention in 2013 under a Russian-US agreement, averting military intervention under former US president, Barack Obama.

While the EU has no military role in the conflict, it is the biggest aid donor and has said it will not help rebuild Syria until a peace process involving a transition away from the Assad government is under way.

But the 28-member bloc’s position on Syria is in flux after France’s new president, Emmanuel Macron, broke with the previous French government position by saying he saw no legitimate successor to Mr Assad and no longer considered his departure a precondition to resolving the war.