European foreign ministers have agreed to meet at the end of January to discuss lifting sanctions on Syria. Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, said that the foreign ministers would convene in Brussels on January 27 to probe how the 27-member bloc might approach the issue.
After talks in Riyadh at the beginning of the month, Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, called for the lifting of sanctions on Syria.
The minister stressed lifting of unilateral and international sanctions imposed on Syria, seeing their continuation as a hinderance to reconstruction throughout the country.
Syria’s new Foreign Minister, Asaad Hassan al-Shaibani, also attended the talks, repeatedly calling for the removal of these old sanctions.
The late January meeting approaches as Syria’s new administration, led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, has urged this lifting of sanctions by the West to help international funding flow to Damascus.
On Monday, the US issued a sanctions exemption for transactions with governing institutions in Syria for six months after the end of the Assad regime. In hopes to provide relief to the country and aid humanitarian assistance, other EU countries have pushed for similar sanctions.
According to Galip Dalay, senior consulting fellow at the London-based Chatham House, the new Syrian administration is anxious to lift sanctions as it must show people that the revolution has improved their lives before imposing major changes.
Read more here.
