protest against president al assad's regime over the past two months. arwa damon joins us from the capital beirut. hi there, arwa. what kind of reaction is there likely to be against sanctions and will it have any effect? >> well, zain we have continuously seen the syrian regime remaining defiant in the face of international condemnation, in the face of the sangs that were recently additional sanctions slapped on by the u.s. and that is pretty much the same reaction that we do expect in response to the eu's initial report that it put out on monday. we saw syrian foreign minister coming out on syrian state television saying these measures by the european union were, quote, another black page of europe's record to colonialism in the region. he said these measures would harm both europe and syria alike, saying the response would be to strengthen its ties with