DAMASCUS/BEIRUT: The European Union prepared Wednesday to tighten sanctions against Syria over its repression of anti-regime protests, as long-time Damascus ally Moscow warned against punitive measures. The move came as Syria accused Qatar of fueling the crisis by financing and arming rebels, a day after Damascus flatly rejected Doha’s proposal to send in Arab troops to quell the unrest.

In Brussels, diplomats said EU foreign ministers are set to slap fresh sanctions on Syria at a meeting Monday, adding 22 individuals and eight companies to an existing blacklist.

“As long as the repression continues we will step up our restrictive measures,” said one diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity.

No details were immediately available on the new targets.

The EU has already agreed 10 rounds of sanctions against the regime of President Bashar Assad, with some 120 people and companies targeted so far by an EU assets freeze and travel ban. It is also enforcing an arms embargo and a ban on imports of Syrian crude.

The news comes as the Syrian pound hit a record low Wednesday of 71 to the dollar on the black market, with one observer saying it has been hit by the political crisis, including the repercussions of sanctions.

The EU move would come on the heels of a pledge by U.S. President Barack Obama to double efforts to force a change of regime in Syria and as the U.N. Security Council struggles to agree on a resolution on Damascus’s crackdown on dissent.

Russia, which insists the Syrian opposition is as much to blame for the violence as the regime, warned against Western calls for punitive measures.

Speaking at his annual news conference, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said veto-holding Security Council members Russia and China would stand firm against foreign intervention and said Russia was not obliged to provide any explanation for arms deliveries to Syria.

“We will insist – and we have an understanding with our Chinese colleagues that this is our common position – that these fundamental points be retained in any decision that may be taken by the U.N. Security Council,” Lavrov said.

“If somebody intends to use force ... it will be on their conscience. They will not receive any authority from the Security Council,” said Lavrov, who also emphasized that Russia and China oppose any sanctions against Syria.

“We don’t consider it necessary to explain ourselves or justify ourselves, because we are not violating any international agreements or any [U.N.] Security Council resolutions,” Lavrov said on heavily criticized arms shipments to Syria.

In London, British Prime Minister David Cameron said there was “growing evidence” that Iran was supplying weapons to Syria, with Lebanon’s Hezbollah channeling some of the arms and described President Bashad Assad as a “wretched tyrant.”

He promised that Britain would “lead the way” in tightening sanctions and asset bans against Syria.

“There is now growing evidence that Iran is providing a huge amount of support,” Cameron told lawmakers. “There have been interceptions of some shipments by Turkey which are particularly interesting.

“People should also know that Hezbollah is an organization standing up and supporting this wretched tyrant who is killing so many of his own people.”

The U.N. says that of the 5,400 people killed since protests erupted in March, 400 have lost their lives since the observers arrived.

Moscow and Beijing used their vetoes at the U.N. Security Council last October to block a Western-drafted resolution that would have threatened Damascus with “targeted measures.”

Syrian state media stepped up its rhetoric against Qatar ahead of a meeting of the Arab League Saturday and Sunday, which will discuss the future of the observer mission.

The Gulf state “can help Syria get out of its crisis ... by stopping its financing of armed [groups] and the trafficking of weapons” to insurgents, government newspaper Tishrin charged.

Damascus routinely blames the violence in Syria on “armed groups” and “terrorists” backed by foreign powers pursuing an agenda of regime change.

On Tuesday, Syria dismissed the Qatari call for Arab troops to be deployed to halt the bloodshed. The Qatari proposal is not on the League’s agenda but could still be discussed, a bloc official said.

Meanwhile, a delegation of the opposition Syrian National Council arrived in Cairo to press the League to adopt resolutions by the U.N. human rights council accusing the regime of “crimes against humanity.”

The U.N. pledged this week to assist the Arab mission deployed in Syria since last month, saying it would start training the bloc’s observers within days.

But the rebel Free Syrian Army has demanded bolder action from the world body, urging it to “act quickly against the regime through Chapter Seven of the U.N. Charter to maintain peace.” Chapter Seven provides for U.N. forces to initiate military action, not simply act in self-defense.

Diplomats at the United Nations said experts from the 15 members of the Security Council held prolonged talks Tuesday on a proposed Russian resolution on Syria without getting closer to U.N. action on the bloodshed.

“There were more than four hours of talks but they only touched on the preparatory paragraphs,” one Western diplomat said.

Fresh violence Wednesday claimed seven lives, after at least 20 civilians were killed Tuesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Security forces and pro-regime militias killed three civilians in Idlib province, and a soldier and a defector died during clashes in the same region, according to the London-based watchdog.

Another two civilians were reportedly killed by heavy machinegun fire in the flashpoint city of Homs.

A tenuous truce was reportedly holding in Zabadani, near the Lebanese border, where troops had been fighting anti-Assad rebels, residents said.

“As of now there is no shelling and no gunfire. It is quiet. But the army is still surrounding the area,” said one Zabadani resident who gave her name as Rita.

Syrian forces backed by tanks attacked the hill resort Friday in the biggest military offensive against insurgents since the Arab monitors began work on Dec. 26.

Michel Kilo, a dissident Syrian writer who spent six years in jail, said the struggle in Syria was at an impasse.

He criticized the rebel Free Syrian Army for risking dragging Syria into “chaos without end” but said Assad’s pledge on the one hand to use an iron fist to crush “terrorists,” while also issuing an amnesty for criminal acts committed during the uprising, showed he had become a “desperate man.”