Date: Jan 23, 2019 Source: The Daily Star Assad blocks access for EU envoys: diplomats BRUSSELS / DAMASCUS: Syria’s President Bashar Assad has revoked special visas for European Union 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 base while closing most embassies in Damascus in protest over what they describe as Assad’s brutal assault on the opposition. But the special permission to use multiple-entry Syrian visas for access to Damascus was rescinded at the start of January with no explanation from the Syrian government, the EU diplomats said, meaning personnel have to apply for time-consuming, single-entry visas every time they wish to travel. The 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. “It’s a serious problem for the EU’s humanitarian assistance,” one EU diplomat said. “This is a measure that hits diplomats and staff of European government embassies and the European Union institutions.” After more than seven years of a devastating war drawing in foreign powers, the European Commission, the EU executive, has channeled almost 800 million euros ($909.44 million) on food, medicine and shelter for Syrians inside the country. There was no immediate available estimate for the impact of the ban, but a Commission spokesman said the bloc was “doing everything in our power to take appropriate measures to minimize any impact on the delivery of EU humanitarian assistance inside Syria.” The EU, which imposed the latest in a series of economic sanctions on Assad’s government Monday, says it will not shift its policy until a political transition away from Assad is underway as part of a U.N.-led peace process. But 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. The United Arab Emirates reopened its embassy in Damascus in December, a significant shift for a U.S.-allied Arab state that once backed rebels fighting him. In the latest manifestation of changing regional policy toward Assad’s government, the UAE hosted a Syrian trade delegation led by a businessman and lawmaker who has been on the U.S. Treasury sanctions list since the country’s civil war erupted in 2011, Emirati state media reported Tuesday. The UAE’s state-run WAM news agency said the private sector forum launched Sunday in Abu Dhabi was meant to “enhance” commercial ties between Emirati and Syrian businessmen. WAM said Mohammad Hamsho led the Syrian delegation. Hamsho is on the sanctions list for supporting Assad and his brother, Maher Assad, who Washington accuses of playing a leading role in human rights abuses in the war. The U.S. withdrawal from Syria also appears to have emboldened Assad, the diplomats said. The U.S. departure from the quarter of Syria held by Kurdish-led forces could allow to regain control over the area, home to much of the country’s natural resources. But although Assad has regained control over more than half of Syria, attackers have periodically continued to strike in cities he controls with suicide blasts and car bombs.A car bomb exploded at a busy intersection in the coastal city of Latakia Tuesday, killing a civilian and wounding 14, Syrian state-run media said. The blast was the second in government-controlled areas of Syria in two days. The TV station said Tuesday’s explosion occurred midafternoon in the city’s Al-Hammam Square. It said specialized units dismantled a second bomb before it detonated in the same location.