Reuters is saying that according to EU sources, Sweden refused an EU-wide consensus to add two Syrian telecom firms to EU-sanctions list. EU did add 12 individuals and 11 institutions and firms into the list on Thursday on top of earlier sanctions on other firms and institutions. The most recent batch of sanctions on firms is targeted mainly against oil and financial sectors as well as technical equipment used in surveillance.
The tools against the individuals and companies include asset freeze and asset bans and financial support prohibitions. The two Telecom firms excluded after Swedish representatives apparently threatened to vote down the entire list of additions have extensive business dealing with Swedish telecom giant Ericsson ((OMX: ERIC B, NASDAQ: ERIC)). Here is a list compiled by Lebanese newspaper Daily Star on sanctions against Syria chronologically.
According to information from Reuters, Sweden had argued that the networks maintained by the two companies (MTN from South Africa and Syrian Telecom STE) are critical for the functioning of the entire telecoms network in Syria, which in turn is of course vital for both the government and the opposition movement. It is hard to think this to be a matter of putting economic issues ahead of the needs of the people (especially considering that these two agreement are hardly critical for Ericsson), so it is most likely the general feeling of Swedish officials was that it do more harm than good for the cause to tackle the network companies.
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