{"id":30236,"date":"2019-01-23T05:24:10","date_gmt":"2019-01-23T05:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=30236"},"modified":"2019-01-23T05:24:10","modified_gmt":"2019-01-23T05:24:10","slug":"assad-blocks-access-to-damascus-for-eu-envoys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=30236","title":{"rendered":"Assad blocks access to Damascus for EU envoys"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nBRUSSELS, DAMASCUS:\u00a0Syria\u2019s Bashar Assad has revoked special visas for EU diplomats and officials traveling regularly between Beirut and Damascus, complicating efforts to distribute aid to civil war victims, three senior EU diplomats said.<\/p>\n

\nSince conflict broke out in Syria in 2011, the EU has used the Lebanese capital, the nearest major city, for its diplomatic base while closing most embassies in Damascus in protest over what they describe as Assad’s brutal assault on the opposition.<\/p>\n

\nBut the special permission to use multiple-entry Syrian visas for access to Damascus was rescinded at the start of January with no explanation from the Syrian
regime, the EU diplomats said, meaning personnel have to apply for time-consuming, single-entry visas every time they wish to travel.<\/p>\n

\nThe EU diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity said they believed it was an attempt to try to force European governments and the bloc to reopen embassies in Damascus, as the Syrian army, backed by Russian and Iranian forces, regains control of most of the country.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cIt is a serious problem for the EU\u2019s humanitarian assistance,\u201d said one EU diplomat. \u201cThis is a measure that hits diplomats and staff of European government embassies and the European Union institutions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nReuters was unable immediately to reach Syrian Foreign Ministry officials for comment.<\/p>\n

\nAfter more than seven years of a devastating war drawing in foreign powers, the European Commission, the EU executive, has channeled almost \u20ac800 million ($909.44 million) on food, medicine and shelter for Syrians inside the country.<\/p>\n

\nThere was no immediate available estimate for the impact of the multi-visa ban, but a Commission spokesman said that the bloc was \u201cdoing everything in our power to take appropriate measures to minimize any impact on the delivery of EU humanitarian assistance inside Syria.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nThe EU, which imposed the latest in a series of economic sanctions on Assad\u2019s regime on Monday, says it will not shift its policy until a political transition away from Assad is underway as part of a UN-led peace process.<\/p>\n

\nBut EU diplomats also say Assad feels far more secure in his position than several years ago as he consolidates territorial advances and other countries reconsider their positions.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cSo far, the EU is united on its policy that we won\u2019t deal with Assad, but he appears to feel his bargaining position is stronger now,\u201d a second diplomat said.<\/p>\n

\nBomb explosion<\/strong><\/p>\n

\nA car bomb exploded on Tuesday in the Syrian regime\u2019s coastal stronghold of Latakia, killing one person and wounding four others, state news agency SANA reported.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cInitial reports indicate that a car bomb exploded and that the driver was killed while four other people were wounded,\u201d SANA said, adding that the explosion occurred in the city\u2019s Al-Hammam Square.<\/p>\n

\nAuthorities found a second bomb in the same place and defused it just before it was due to blow up, the agency added.<\/p>\n

\nIt published video footage showing a burnt-out car surrounded by firefighters and soldiers.<\/p>\n

\nLatakia is a bastion of the Assad family.<\/p>\n

\nThe city, the capital of Latakia province located on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, has largely escaped the violence that has devastated other regions of Syria since the conflict began in 2011.<\/p>\n

\nAccording to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, Tuesday\u2019s blast was caused by an explosive device hidden inside the car or near it.<\/p>\n

\nObservatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP that the driver killed in the blast was not a suicide attacker.<\/p>\n

\nIn September 2015, a car bomb had exploded in the same square, killing dozens of people.<\/p>\n

\nThe latest explosion comes days after a blast \u2014 the first in more than a year \u2014 hit the Syrian capital Damascus, which has also been largely insulated from the war.<\/p>\n

\nAccording to SANA, the bomb blast hit southern Damascus without causing any victims, but the Observatory reported it left a number of people dead and wounded.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BRUSSELS, DAMASCUS:\u00a0Syria\u2019s Bashar Assad has revoked special visas for EU diplomats and officials traveling regularly between Beirut and Damascus, complicating efforts to distribute aid to civil war victims, three senior EU diplomats said. Since conflict broke out in Syria in 2011, the EU has used the Lebanese capital, the nearest major city, for its diplomatic…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":30237,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}