Syria Today | Syria ready to restart Association Agreement negotiations with EU

Syria ready to restart Association Agreement negotiations with EU

Syria announced that it would soon restart ‘official negotiations’ with the European Union on the Association Agreement (AA) on March 16.

“A European delegation will travel to Damascus to officially negotiate the points in the agreement that raise Syrian concern,” Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Mu’allem said at a joint press conference in Damascus with EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.

“The date for signing the agreement will depend on the two parties, and on the degree of flexibility shown during the forthcoming negotiations,” Mu’allem added, without elaborating on Syrian concerns in the agreement.

The AA was due to be signed last October, but was deferred after President Bashar al-Assad said Syria wanted to revise certain clauses. At the time, the Netherlands insisted on including a separate document from its EU partners linking the agreement to Syrian respect for human rights.

Muallem said that both sides “share the same points of view”.

“They want an agreement based on equality, respect for sovereignty and independence, and non-interference in internal affairs,” he said.

Ashton, who earlier met with President Assad, told reporters she hoped the talks would arrive at “a fine conclusion.”

A version of the AA was initialled in 2004, but its ratification was put on hold following the assassination of Lebanon’s former prime minister Rafiq Hariri in February 2005. The US and France held Syria responsible for the assassination, a charge that has been repeatedly denied by Damascus.