EU sanctions Syrian regime figures, over Assad's chemical weapon attacks

The European Union on Monday imposed sanctions on a Syrian research centre and its staff as the 28-nation bloc stepped up its action against the use of chemical weapons.

EU foreign ministers slapped travel bans and asset freezes on five people linked to Syria's Scientific Studies and Research Centre.

Britain's foreign office said they "have played a central role in the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime against their own people".

"We will continue to show our willingness to stand up for the international rules that keep us safe, and which the Kremlin and the Assad regime seek to undermine," British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said in a statement.

The Syrian archive has documented over 200 chemical attacks in Syria since the start of the war in 2011.

Independent investigators, including the UN, have said the Syrian regime is responsible for the vast majority of these attacks, including the use of sarin on the town of Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib, which left around 100 dead.

Also included in the sanctions are four Russians blamed for a nerve agent attack in the UK.

The four Russians on the list are the two men accused of planting the nerve agent in Salisbury last March, Anatoly Chepiga and Alexander Mishkin, and their superiors, the head and deputy head of the GRU, Russia's military intelligence unit.

This is the first time the EU has imposed sanctions to combat chemical weapons.