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Syria says new constitution approved

Syrian TV said on Monday that 57.4 per cent of eligible voters voted the day earlier and that only nine per cent said “no” to the referendum that President Bashar al-Assad’s opponents and Western nations have dismissed as a sham.

The announcement of the results came just after the European Union adopted sanctions on Syria’s central bank and froze the assets of several Syrian government officials.

The foreign ministers of the 27 EU countries, in a meeting in Brussels on Monday, also banned the purchase of gold, precious metals and diamonds from the country, and banned Syrian cargo flights from the European Union.

The names of the Syrian officials sanctioned would be made public on Tuesday in the EU’s official journal.

In another development on Monday, Qatar’s prime minister said he was in favour of delivering arms to the Syrian opposition that is battling government forces.

“We should do whatever necessary to help them, including giving them weapons to defend themselves,” Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani said during an official visit to Norway.

“This uprising in Syria now [has lasted] one year. For 10 months, it was peaceful: nobody was carrying weapons, nobody was doing anything. And Bashar continued killing them.

“So I think they’re right to defend themselves by weapons and I think we should help these people by all means.”

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