The European Union banned the wife of Syrian President Bashar Assad from traveling to the EU or shopping at European companies in a move to stop her from buying the Chanel dresses and Louboutin shoes she apparently craves.

The EU's latest round of sanctions, which also targeted the president's mother and sister, is notable for including Assad's London-born wife Asma, whose luxury shopping habit was laid bare this month in a cache of hacked emails.

Assad has been the target of sanctions since May last year, but these have so far had little impact on his policies. Violence has intensified in Syria in recent weeks as pro-government forces bombard rebel towns and villages, looking to sweep their lightly armed opponents out of their strongholds.

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After Friday's decision, EU border guards will refuse Asma entry if she tries to travel into the bloc, though Britain will have to allow her in if she uses a British passport.

"British nationals, British passport holders do obviously have a right of entry to the United Kingdom," Foreign Secretary William Hague told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels.

Report: 'I am the real dictator,' wife of Syria's Bashar Assad says

"But given that we are imposing an asset freeze on all of these individuals, and a travel ban on other members of the same family and the regime, we're not expecting Mrs. Assad to try to travel to the United Kingdom at the moment," he said.

A former investment banker, Asma Assad once cultivated the image of a serious-minded woman inspired by liberal values.

But she appears to have continued a life of luxury shopping and entertainment during the uprising against the four-decade rule of the Assad family, while according to the United Nations at least 8,000 people have been killed in the violence.

Emails she exchanged with her husband, obtained by Britain's Guardian newspaper, apparently showed they were buying pop music and luxury goods on the internet during the bloodshed.

Making sanctions personal
Asma Assad, a 36-year-old mother of three, was shown to have a penchant for crystal-encrusted Christian Louboutin shoes and Chanel dresses from France.

Before the Syrian insurgency started a year ago, a glowing article in Vogue magazine described her as "a rose in the desert" and her household as "wildly democratic."

But that image has crumbled as the emails showed her spending tens of thousands of pounds on jewels, fancy furniture, and a Venetian glass vase from Harrods.

EU foreign ministers also added other Syrians to a list of those facing asset freezes and bans on travel to the bloc, and barred EU companies from doing business with two Syrian oil companies, EU officials said.

The decisions, which come into force on Saturday, follow 12 previous rounds of sanctions aimed at isolating Assad within Syria and cutting off his sources of finance. These included an arms embargo and a ban on importing Syrian oil into the EU.

"With this new listing we are striking at the heart of the Assad clan, sending out a loud and clear message to Mr. Assad: he should step down," Dutch Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal said.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said the international community's objective was "a situation where Assad recognizes his responsibility, moves aside and we are able to see a genuine movement forward in Syria".

The international community has struggled to formulate a joint approach to Syria in the face of opposition from Russia and China to U.N. Security Council resolutions proposed by the West.

French foreign minister Alain Juppe called on the Syrian opposition to unite and present a plan to EU leaders. Such a move had been crucial for the Libyan opposition last year, and had helped galvanize Western support.

It is a priority "to convince the opposition to get together and organize itself. You can't win when you're divided," he said. "I make a reference to the National Transition Council in Libya, which came to Brussels to present its political road map, and that had a lot of impact to give it credibility. The Syrian opposition needs to do the same."

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Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

The wife of Syria's President Bashar Assad declared that she was the family's "real dictator," according to an email leaked to regime opponents, a British newspaper reported Monday.

British-born Asma Assad's messages imply that she occupies an important spot the dictator's inner circle, the Daily Telegraph reported.

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This and a slew of other alleged email exchanges among members of the Syrian elite have been spilling out for days, shedding light on the workings of the embattled government as it continues its violent crackdown on protesters. More than 8,000 people have been killed since the start of the Syrian uprising just over a year ago, according to U.N. figures.

 

 

Syria email hack points to new 'information war'

Late Sunday, a firefight broke out between Free Syrian Army rebels and forces loyal to Assad in Mezze, a main district of the capital Damascus, witnesses told Reuters, while a car bomb ripped through a residential area of Syria's second city Aleppo, a day after twin blasts killed 27 in the capital Damascus.

Car bomb in Syria after activists beaten

"There is fighting near Hamada supermarket and the sound of explosions there and elsewhere in the neighborhood. Security police have blocked several side streets and the street lighting has been cut off," a housewife who lives in the area told Reuters by telephone.

Extra troops have been patrolling in Mezze, located on the Damascus-Beirut road, after thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in the neighborhood last month to denounce Assad following the killing of several protesters.

Email: 'No more messing around'
Despite the violence, the emails allegedly from Asma Assad, 38, portray a wife who is very supportive of her husband's hard-line measures. She had indicated that she was interested in liberalizing Syria before the beginning of the uprising, the Telegraph reported.

She praised a speech the president gave for displaying a sense of strength and that there would be "no more messing around," in one email to a friend on Jan. 10, the newspaper reported.

Shortly before the government onslaught that would claim hundreds of lives in Homs later in January, she circulated an email making a joke at the expense of the city, the Telegraph said.

Msnbc.com, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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