European Union spokesman Peter Stano said on Thursday that official Belgrade’s decision to appoint an ambassador to Syria runs counter to the EU’s stands.

The EU’s stand on normalizing relations with the Syrian regime is clear and unchanged, Stano said in a written statement to Radio Free Europe. He said that sending an ambassador to head Serbia’s diplomatic mission in Damascus means that the diplomat will have to hand his accreditation to President Bashar al Assad who is under EU sanctions “and does not enjoy legitimacy as a head of state … as someone who oversaw mass violence against the population by regime troops, including the use of chemical weapons”. Stano said that all EU member states have charges d’affaires instead of ambassadors in Damascus.

Serbian Ambassador Jovan Vujasinovic’s term in office expired in 2013 and a charges d’affaires has headed the embassy since then. The Serbian authorities have not released the name of the new ambassador.