Are sanctions among the most pointless tools in contemporary diplomacy? That certainly seems to be the case in Syria where sanctions have been in place against the Assad regime ever since he launched a brutal crackdown against his own people 16 months ago.
Last week, Wikileaks began releasing a massive tranche of emails from Assad’s inner circle which will make uncomfortable reading for many companies in the West. They reveal that in May 2011 a subsidiary of Finmeccanica, the Italian defence manufacturer, sold over £30 million worth of equipment to the Syrian government just when an EU trade embargo was being placed on the regime. As recently as February of this year engineers from the company were also in Damascus teaching the government how to install and use their equipment in helicopter gunships.
Wikileaks only confirms what we already knew. When the Guardian published emails from Assad’s inner circle in March, it revealed the futility of sanctions and blacklisting there.
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