Foreign Secretary urges EU to press ahead with listings under new chemical weapons sanctions regime

A sanctions regime on chemical weapons, tabled by the UK and France in the wake of the Syria and Salisbury attacks, will be adopted formally tomorrow at the Foreign Affairs Council.

This follows extensive lobbying efforts from the UK and close partners.

The Foreign Secretary will be thanking eight Foreign Ministers today at Chevening for their support and determination in the global effort to end the use of chemical weapons for good.

Ministers from Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania will join the Foreign Secretary at his official residence, before heading to Luxembourg for meetings on Monday.

The Foreign Secretary will use this momentum to ensure specific individuals and entities responsible for the use and proliferation of chemical weapons across the world are listed under the new sanctions regime swiftly.

He will also tell counterparts at the FAC that discussions on a new cyber-related sanctions regime must now be accelerated.

The Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said:

For years there has been an international taboo on the use of chemical weapons but that is at risk now after Syria and Salisbury. We now need to redraw the red line that says that for anyone using these horrific weapons the price will always be too high.

These new sanctions are vital, but they are not the end of the story.

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تصريح من وزير الخارجية البريطاني جيريمي هانت حول اعتماد نظام العقوبات الأوروبي الخاص بالأسلحة الكيميائية الذي اقترحته بريطانيا وفرنسا بعد هجمات سورية وسالزبري.