<p>Foreign ministers from the 27-nation bloc agreed to add the president, along with several leading officials, to an earlier blacklist.</p>.<p>"The repression in Syria continues," said British Foreign Secretary William Hague as he went into talks with his counterparts.</p>.<p>"It is important to see the right to peaceful protest, the release of political prisoners and taking the path of reform, not repression, in Syria over the coming days."<br /><br />Tightening the screws on the Assad regime, the EU earlier this month issued an arms embargo as well as a visa ban and assets freeze against the president's brother, four of his cousins, and others in his inner circle.<br /><br />Assad could have avoided the sanctions by listening up to Syrian protestors and choosing the path of reform, said German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle.<br /><br />"He did not choose this path. He continued to violently repress peaceful protests. This is why we must widen the sanctions, including against President Assad," he said.<br /><br />"When a regime represses its own people this way, with violence, the EU must respond."<br /><br />EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton had warned Assad earlier this month that he could be next on a new list of sanctions, but European nations had held off hitting out at the Syrian leader in hopes of seeing an end to the violence and a swift change to "genuine and comprehensive political reform".<br /><br />Ashton said as she went into today's talks with EU foreign ministers that Syria's "government has to act now."<br /><br /></p>
<p>Foreign ministers from the 27-nation bloc agreed to add the president, along with several leading officials, to an earlier blacklist.</p>.<p>"The repression in Syria continues," said British Foreign Secretary William Hague as he went into talks with his counterparts.</p>.<p>"It is important to see the right to peaceful protest, the release of political prisoners and taking the path of reform, not repression, in Syria over the coming days."<br /><br />Tightening the screws on the Assad regime, the EU earlier this month issued an arms embargo as well as a visa ban and assets freeze against the president's brother, four of his cousins, and others in his inner circle.<br /><br />Assad could have avoided the sanctions by listening up to Syrian protestors and choosing the path of reform, said German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle.<br /><br />"He did not choose this path. He continued to violently repress peaceful protests. This is why we must widen the sanctions, including against President Assad," he said.<br /><br />"When a regime represses its own people this way, with violence, the EU must respond."<br /><br />EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton had warned Assad earlier this month that he could be next on a new list of sanctions, but European nations had held off hitting out at the Syrian leader in hopes of seeing an end to the violence and a swift change to "genuine and comprehensive political reform".<br /><br />Ashton said as she went into today's talks with EU foreign ministers that Syria's "government has to act now."<br /><br /></p>