Damascus on Tuesday denounced the European Union's imposition of new economic sanctions on people and institutions associated with it, saying that this would impede the provision of humanitarian aid, according to the official Syrian News Agency (SANA).

And on Monday, the European Union imposed new economic sanctions on people and institutions linked to the Syrian authorities, against the background of drug smuggling, “oppression” of citizens, and cooperation with Moscow, the most prominent supporter of Damascus.

The European Union affirmed that the sanctions will not affect humanitarian aid to the Syrian people, after the devastating earthquake that struck Syria and neighboring Turkey on the sixth of last February.

A source in the Syrian Foreign Ministry said, according to SANA, that "the European Union repeats its lies when it claims that the sanctions imposed on Syria do not impede the provision of humanitarian aid or access to food and medical equipment."

And he considered that these sanctions "constitute a serious threat to the lives and livelihood of Syrians and negatively affect the country's economy."

The new European sanctions targeted two cousins of President Bashar al-Assad on charges of involvement in smuggling operations of the narcotic Captagon, of which Saudi Arabia is the largest market.

The European Union followed the example of the United States and Britain after imposing sanctions on Syrians, including Assad's cousins, on charges of smuggling Captagon.

European sanctions also affected Syrian officials on charges of violating human rights, and institutions on charges of sending Syrian raw materials to Russia.

Following the devastating earthquake, the European Union announced a temporary easing of the sanctions imposed on Syria in order to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid to the affected areas.

However, the Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs considered in its statement that "the exceptions that the European Union boasts about have no effect at all, but rather are for media propaganda and concealing the truth of its policies towards Syria."