UK cannot ban Asma Assad from travel

Mr Hague said that although the European Union had imposed additional sanctions on the Syrian regime including travel restrictions on members of the Assad family, the president's British-born wife Asma al-Assad could not be turned back from Britain should she decide to visit. "British passport holders do obviously have a right of entry to the United Kingdom," Mr Hague said. "But given that we are imposing an asset freeze on all of these individuals and a travel ban on other members of the same family and the regime, we are not expecting Mrs Assad to try to travel to the United Kingdom at the moment." Mrs Assad, as well as her husband's mother, sister and sister-in-law, have been banned from travelling to European Union countries and any assets she may have there have been frozen.