Baghdad condemns the introduction of economic sanctions on Syria as they will affect regular people rather than the country's government, Iraqi paper As-Sabah said on Friday referring to Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
"We say no to economic sanctions on any country. Sanctions punish not regimes, but peoples," al-Maliki said, commenting on League of Arab States Nov. 27 decision to impose a battery of economic sanctions on Syria meant to sever most trade and investment from the Arab world.
The Arab League's unprecedented move further deepened Syria's international isolation.
Last week, EU and the United States tightened economic sanctions on Syria, as the UN said more than 4000 people have died in the ongoing crackdown on protesters.
UN rights chief Navi Pillay has warned that the real toll from unrest in Syria that began in mid-March could be grimmer still as "the information coming to us is that it's much more".
Western diplomats said the sanctions include bans on exporting gas and oil industry equipment to Syria, trading Syrian government bonds and selling software that could be used to monitor internet and telephone communications.
They also agreed to refrain from providing concessional loans to Syria - credit at lower rates and longer grace periods than what is offered by the markets.
The goal is to restrict the regime's access to cash.
