EU to rule after Syria deploys tanks to quash any upsurge in protests following Friday prayers, particularly around Deraa
The EU is expected to agree on personal sanctions against the Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and other members of the regime over the continuing killing of protesters, sources said.
The US Senate has also called for the president to be directly targeted but few observers believe the measures will be enough to change the government's "security first" strategy, which involves suppressing protests and only then opening a "dialogue" with opposition figures.
The regime was on Thursday preparing to quash any upsurge in demonstrations following Friday prayers tomorrow. Tanks have been deployed across the south, particularly in towns around Deraa, the epicentre of the pro-democracy demonstrations.
A heavy campaign has taken place in the Bab Amro neighbourhood of Homs. Human rights monitors said 19 people were killed in Homs and the southern town of al-Hara on Wednesday and security forces broke up a protest of 2,000 students in Aleppo overnight.
Syria's second city, which has hitherto been relatively quiet, is seen as a critical bellwether between the government and the scattered opposition. Security forces arrested the human rights campaigner Najati Tayara, the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
"The government will want to prove it has managed to end this," said an analyst in Damascus. "And it may manage to do so for the time being."
A diplomatic source said that Iranian help was being led by the Revolutionary Guards and mostly involved advisers and light equipment.
"It looks like the IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] are giving Damascus the benefit of their considerable wisdom when it comes to crushing dissent," the source said.
The EU imposed travel bans and asset freezes on 13 Syrian officials on Tuesday, including the president's brother, Maher,and Syrian ambassadors in European capitals were threatened with more punitive measures on Wednesday.
Germany and Spain were said to have resisted the president's inclusion on the original sanctions list, in the hope of encouraging him to end the bloodshed and introduce genuine reform. In the absence of any such changes, diplomats said new measures were being discussed.
"It would be reasonable to expect future moves to expand the list ... here is more coming," one western diplomat said, making it clear that the Assad's name would be at the top of the new list.
"Assad is the head of state, a member of the inner core," the diplomat said. Agreement of the new measures is expected in the next few days, but is no expectation that it will bring about a breakthrough.
"With the army loyal and the current numbers, the government won't be brought down," said a western diplomat in Damascus. "But as the economy worsens and Assad's international legitimacy falls, the balance could change."
Nidaa Hassan is a pseudonym for a Syrian-based correspondent