SYRIAN Foreign Minister Faisal al-Mekdad denounced Western sanctions yesterday as “catastrophic” for his country’s people, branding them a form of “economic terrorism” aimed at destablising the region.

He was speaking in a video conference of leaders of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), a group of 120 countries including South Africa, Cuba, Venezuela and Iran, when he hit out at the “illegal and coercive measures.

“During the past 10 years, Syria has been subjected to the most violent and heinous terrorist war imposed on it by countries that used terrorist organisations and various entities associated with them, as well as foreign terrorists from more than 100 countries, as a tool to implement their subversive policies and achieve their geopolitical agendas at the expense of the security and stability of Syria and countries of the region,” he said.