Geoff Meade
The Independent
March 24, 2012

Foreign Secretary William Hague today welcomed “another tightening of the screw” against the regime of Syria’s president Bashar al-Assad as his wife was banned from travelling to the EU.

However there was confusion about whether British-born Asma-al-Assad, 36, could legally be banned from the UK after Europe’s foreign ministers added her to a EU list of undesirables.

The president’s wife joins a register of more than 100 members of the ruling regime – which already includes her husband – whose European travel visas are blocked and whose European-held financial assets are frozen.

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