Syrian Arab News Agency S A N A
Brussels, SANA-European diplomats have revealed that Hungary blocked yesterday the approval of the agreement reached by European leaders to ban the bulk of Russian oil imports and impose new sanctions on Russia, due to Budapest’s rejection to include the head of the Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, on the European sanctions list.
According to the AFP News Agency, the leaders of the 27 EU countries decided during their summit in Brussels on Monday and Tuesday to impose a new package of sanctions on Russia, which include adding Patriarch Kirill to the European sanctions list due to the fact that he is “a long-time ally of President Vladimir Putin”, according to the draft resolution approved by the summit.
The most prominent provision of the 6th package of European sanctions against Moscow is to reduce the European Union’s imports of Russian oil by 90 percent by the end of this year and the inclusion of 60 additional individuals on the sanctions list.
The provision also excludes three Russian banks, including SberBank, from the SWIFT system for international money transfers.
Manar Salameh/ Ruaa al-Jazaeri
