The European Union wants to condition a trade accord with Damascus on a Syrian pledge to renounce weapons of mass destruction. “It is crucial that the clause about weapons of mass destruction will be also accepted,” German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said yesterday after meeting with Syria’s foreign minister, Reuters reported. The executive European Commission had negotiated the accord with Syria in December 2003, but several nations complained that it fell short of an E.U. commitment to press countries like Syria to abandon programs to develop weapons of mass destruction. The accord has grown in importance since the United States imposed sanctions on Syria in May for its support for terrorism and weapons of mass destruction programs.
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