European foreign ministers would meet at the end of the month to discuss lifting sanctions on Syria, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas announced in Riyadh.
Kallas said foreign ministers would meet in Brussels on 27 January to discuss easing sanctions on Syria. This came after the Islamist Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) militants toppled the government of President Bashar al-Assad a month ago.
The decision to soften sanctions against Damascus would depend on the new Syrian administration’s approach to governing the country, Kallas added.
If we see the developments going to the right direction, we are ready to do the next steps… If we see that it’s not going to the right direction, then we can also move back on this.
Sunday’s conference organised by Saudi Arabia takes place as Syria’s interim government calls on the West to lift sanctions so that international funding can flow more freely. Saudi foreign minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud emphasised that “lifting the unilateral and UN sanctions imposed on Syria as continued … sanctions will hinder the aspirations of the Syrian people to achieve development.”
The United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union and other countries imposed tough sanctions on Syria after Assad’s suppression of democratic protests in 2011, which escalated into civil war. However, the new reality in Syria is complicated by sanctions against HTS and some of its leaders for being an affiliate of Al-Qaeda.
Germany, which is leading the EU sanctions debate, proposed on Sunday to authorise aid to the Syrian population but keep sanctions on Assad’s allies, according to foreign minister Annalena Baerbock.
Syrians now need a quick dividend from the transition of power, and we continue to help those in Syria who have nothing, as we have done all the years of civil war.
British Foreign Secretary David Lammy joined talks in Riyadh along with ministers from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, as well as UN special envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen.
On Monday, the US announced a six-month sanctions exemption for deals with government agencies in Syria in an effort to ease the flow of humanitarian aid and allow some energy operations.
