The relief aims to support “an inclusive political transition in Syria,” says Council of the European Union.
The EU on Monday lifted a number of economic sanctions on Syria, after the fall of Bashar Assad’s regime late last year.
“We will go forward with the suspension of sanctions against Syria,” the EU’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said before a meeting of foreign ministers in Brussels. “This includes the transport, energy and banking sectors.”
The sanctions relief aims to support « an inclusive political transition in Syria, and its swift economic recovery, reconstruction and stabilization, » said the official Council of the EU statement.
The EU had previously agreed to gradually ease sanctions it imposed on the country as a result of the violent 2011 crackdown on protesters by Assad’s government, resulting in a civil war that killed hundreds of thousands of people.
Assad, who ruled Syria with an iron fist for almost a quarter of a century, fled to Russia after opposition forces swept the country and stormed the Syrian capital in December. The country is now governed by a new president, Ahmad al-Sharaa, formerly known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani.
The EU continues to list Al-Sharaa’s organization, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, as a terrorist organization, while European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in December warned that the regime change in Syria “offers opportunities but is not without risks.”
