Two weeks after imposing sanctions to Syria, including travel bans and asset freezes on Syria top officials, the European Union is expected to extend the measures to include President Bashar al-Assad, in response to a violent repression on anti-government protests.
EU Foreign Ministers are to meet on Monday in Brussels to discuss these additional sanctions against the Syrian regime, an EU source said.
The United States imposed sanctions on Assad and six senior officials on Wednesday in an escalation of pressure on his government to halt its bloody crackdown on protesters.
Two weeks ago the EU stopped short of including Assad on the list, some EU states then arguing that this could make it harder to encourage change in the country.
The EU source said that there is now a clear majority, for putting the Syrian president on the list.
A French foreign ministry spokesperson said on Friday that France wanted a "conclusive" outcome from the EU meeting on Monday.
Bernard Valero said that his government continued to be deeply concerned by the ongoing violence in Syria and he urged Damascus to halt repression, allow press coverage of events there, release political detainees and prevent torture and firing on demonstrators by security forces.
"This is unacceptable," he said, adding "the media must be able to work." He also called for an end to violence, arrests and repression in Syria.
"The violence, arrests and torture must stop immediately," he affirmed.
There has been so much criticism from the European Parliament and the media for not having put Bashar al-Assad on the sanctions list immediately.
"We have been calling on the High Representative (EU’s foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton) for several weeks now to get agreement on tough and targeted sanctions on the Syrian leadership and not just on second tier officials,” said this week Guy Verhofstadt, leader of the Liberal group at the European Parliament.
"Now that the Americans have shown some decisiveness in bringing increased pressure on those responsible in Damascus for the crackdown which has led to over 800 deaths so far, the European Union must reinforce the message on Al-Assad that the international community stands united and holds him personally responsible for the violence and deaths of civilians involved in the demonstrations."