LONDON — Western sanctions on the regime of President Bashar Assad are little more than symbolic, Western diplomats said.

The sources said the regime has been cut off from most Western suppliers but was buying time and had sustained itself easily by relying on China and Iran for imports.

“China and Iran have been the lifeline for Assad for nearly a year, and sanctions on Syria won’t affect that,” a diplomat said.

On April 23, the EU and United States announced another round of sanctions on the Assad regime. Washington targeted technology suppliers of Damascus while the EU, in its 14th round of sanctions, imposed a ban on luxury goods to Syria.

“This constitutes a loss of prestige for leading circles of the regime,” German State Minister Michael Link said.

The EU ban was meant to hurt the Assad family, reported to purchase Western electronics and luxury items from Europe and the United States. Assad is said to have ordered pop CDs and other Western goods over the Internet.

But diplomats agreed that the sanctions have not stopped the Assad crackdown on the opposition in which up to 11,000 people were killed since March 2011. They said neither Brussels nor Washington expected that Assad would comply with a United Nations ceasefire plan.

“It is hard to be optimistic after everything that has happened in the last 13 months in Syria and the Syrian regime continues to fail to implement key aspects of the ceasefire,” British Foreign Secretary William Hague said.

“This is a regime that is continuing in some cases to kill, to abuse and that only implemented a ceasefire at the last possible moment.”

The last Western ban on luxury goods was in 2007 and targeted North Korea. Diplomats acknowledged that those sanctions were also symbolic and did not affect the behavior of the Pyongyang regime.

But the diplomats said the EU was prepared to step up assistance to the Syrian opposition, including the Sunni rebel movement. On April 24, at least three Syrian military officers were killed in an attack around Damascus.

“When the time comes, we will have to take the necessary measures required if the situation on the ground continues,” French Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said. (Copyright © 2012 East West Services, Inc. 04/25/12)