Syria said on Thursday it will leave the Mediterranean Union, which includes 27 members of the European Union and 16 neighboring countries, in response to the new sanctions from the EU. A Syrian Foreign Ministry spokesman said that the EU imposed misguided sanctions that hurt the Syrian people, calling it a violation of national sovereignty and intervention in the internal affairs of Syria. Since last May, the EU has imposed sanctions on 93 Syrian individuals and organizations. The latest punitive measures announced on Thursday at a meeting of EU Foreign Ministers in Belgium, add 23 more in the energy, finance, banking, and commerce sectors.

Syria said it will cancel free-trade agreements with Turkey and will consider further more measures to counter the Turkish government’s freezing Syrian Government bank accounts.