Leading EU Powers Call for Urgent Review of Sanctions on Syria
(Bloomberg) -- Key European Union member states want to suspend some sanctions on Syria to help ensure a peaceful transition of power after the fall of ex-President Bashar Al-Assad and enable displaced people to return home.
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An immediate review of sanctions by the bloc would ease the flow of humanitarian aid and encourage the protection of women and ethnic minorities, according to a document seen by Bloomberg and signed by the group of countries including Germany and France.
The EU would reserve the right to reimpose measures at any time, said the nations. The Netherlands, Spain, Finland and Denmark make up the grouping.
“The Syrian economy is in a dire state and the EU has a unique opportunity to position itself as an economic player, herewith creating leverage to achieve our political goals and diminish the influence of malign actors like Russia,” the group said.
The move would represent a major step toward reintegrating Syria into the international community after last month’s overthrow of Assad by rebels led by Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, or HTS, which now runs the war-ravaged Middle East nation. The EU, alongside the US and others, imposed sanctions following the Assad administration’s crushing of protestors at the start of a civil war more than a decade ago.
The EU says it has 4.9 million registered Syrian refugees in the region.
The foreign ministers of Germany and France visited Damascus earlier this month to hold talks with Syria’s de-facto leader, Ahmed Al-Sharaa. Russia was an ally of Assad and has a military presence in the country.
As a “first gesture,” the EU group suggests facilitating transport between the bloc and Syria, extending humanitarian exemptions, reevaluating sanctions on high-value goods and allowing for transactions in infrastructure and energy. Options for reopening banking and investment options should also be assessed.
Sanctions against members of the Assad regime and measures on non-proliferation should stay in place.
The removal of HTS from the list of terrorist-designated entities, the states argue, “would have to be condition-based, to prevent any risk of terrorism financing and to ensure that Syria does not turn into a place for terrorist groups which foreign fighters would wish to join.”
The US is already offering limited sanctions relief to Syria to boost the flow of humanitarian aid, the Treasury Department said last week.
“I see there’s a lot of good will, the words are right but we need to see the deeds as well going into the right direction,” The EU’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas told Bloomberg TV in an interview Tuesday, talking about Syria’s new leadership.
EU foreign ministers are set to discuss the bloc’s sanctions against Syria in Brussels on Jan. 27.
They will debate “the roadmap on how we can relieve the sanctions starting from those that are needed and necessary to build up the country and then have conditionalities for the next steps,” Kallas said. “We need to see that the steps are going in the right direction.”
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