By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN, TOM MCTAGUE AND JACOPO BARIGAZZI
Smoke rises from buildings in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo | George Ourfalian/AFP via Getty Images
Several countries had urged a
ramped-up response to Moscow.
Brushing aside an aggressive
push by Germany, France and Britain, EU leaders rejected a proposal to
pointedly threaten new sanctions against Russia and other supporters of the
Syrian government, despite widespread outrage over devastating air strikes and
civilian casualties in Aleppo.
The unsuccessful bid for a
threat of new sanctions highlighted deep fractures in the bloc, which continue
to complicate efforts to develop a cohesive response to an increasingly
aggressive Kremlin. The EU’s three largest powers were eager to send a warning
to Russian President Vladimir Putin over what they have called “atrocities” and
“war crimes” in Syria. However, some other countries — notably Italy — argued
that even a hint of punitive action against Russia was potentially
counter-productive.
The debate over threatening additional sanctions came
during dinner at the EU’s autumn summit, a day after French President François
Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel met in Berlin with Putin and
President Petro Poroshenko of Ukraine to push for implementation of the Minsk 2
peace accord.
After the talks about Ukraine, Merkel and Hollande met
separately with Putin about Syria and said they spoke in blunt terms about the
need for Russia to halt its bombing campaign. Russia unilaterally declared a
ceasefire earlier this week and said it would help open transit routes for
humanitarian aid, demonstrating once again that Russia was both in control of
events on the ground in Syria and fully intent on operating on its own terms.
The dinner conversation was supposed to be about
long-term policy, and had been requested by Italian Prime Minister Matteo
Renzi, who has long had misgivings about the existing sanctions against Russia
over Ukraine. But many EU leaders were infuriated over the suffering of
civilian victims in Aleppo, and that topic became a major stumbling block in
reach agreement on the summit’s final written conclusions.
British Prime Minister Theresa May, who was attending
her first EU summit, made a strong pitch for a tougher stance against Russia,
urging her fellow leaders to ramp up the EU’s response to what she called
Moscow’s “sickening atrocities” in Syria.
The U.K. leader demanded that fresh sanctions on the
Putin regime be kept on the table.
But draft language that specifically referenced a
threat of “further restrictive measures” was rejected. Instead, the leaders
settled on more vague wording saying, “The EU is considering all available
options should the current atrocities continue.”
The disagreements over Russia were just one of the
problems EU leaders wrestled with at the summit. Even more embarrassing was the
failure on Thursday to conclude a trade agreement with Canada, despite some
last-ditch concessions to regional lawmakers in Belgium who have blocked the
deal. The leaders were due to take up the trade talks on Friday.
Summing up the leaders’ discussion on Syria, European
Council President Donald Tusk said: “They strongly condemned the attacks by the
Syrian regime and its allies, notably Russia, on civilians in Aleppo. The EU is
calling for an end to the atrocities and an immediate end to the cessation of
hostilities.”
He added, “It considers all available options if these
atrocities continue.”
While Renzi — backed up by EU foreign affairs chief
Federica Mogherini — succeeded in blurring the language on sanctions, by all
accounts the conversation he initiated on Russia focused far less on the
important economic and energy ties that he had hoped to stress and instead
became a wide-ranging gripe session about the Kremlin’s increasing belligerence
and appetite for military aggression, political meddling and propaganda
attacks.
“Leaders emphasized all sorts of Russian activities,”
Tusk said, “from airspace violations, disinformation campaigns, cyber attacks,
interference into the political processes in the EU and beyond, hybrid tools in
the Balkans, to developments in the MH17 investigation.”
“Given these examples,” Tusk added, “It is clear that
Russia’s strategy is to weaken the EU. We have a sober assessment of the
reality and no illusions.”
And yet, the EU leaders put forward no new response.
Arriving at the summit in Brussels, a number of
leaders again voiced their dismay about the situation in Syria.
Estonian Prime Minister Taavi Rõivas said the EU
needed “to give a very clear message to both the Syrian regime and its allies,
mainly Russia, on the fact that the ambition of turning Aleppo into a new
Grozny, this is absolutely unacceptable.” Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, was
largely reduced to rubble during two brutal wars in which Russia succeeded in
suppressing Islamic separatists.
On Wednesday, leaders of three political factions in
the European Parliament sent a letter to Tusk demanding action on Syria. And in
a speech to EU leaders on Thursday, Martin Schulz, the president of the
European Parliament, reiterated the call.
“I come with a clear message to you from the European
Parliament: Acting to stop the bloodshed in Syria should be the number one
priority on your list,” he said, according to prepared remarks.
Several leaders, including Merkel, expressed a desire
to maintain good relations with Russia even as they demanded an end to
hostilities in Syria. But leaders also said the Kremlin was making such good
relations impossible.
“Increasing tensions with Russia is not our aim,” Tusk
said. “We are simply reacting to steps taken by Russia. Of course, the EU is
always ready to engage in dialogue, but we will never compromise our values or
principles.”
No comments:
Post a Comment