World

EU ministers to discuss Syria sanctions

Foreign Ministers of Kuwait, Germany, Bahrain and UAE pose with the participants of a meeting of top diplomats from the Middle East and Europe to discuss Syria in Riyadh. - AFP
 
Foreign Ministers of Kuwait, Germany, Bahrain and UAE pose with the participants of a meeting of top diplomats from the Middle East and Europe to discuss Syria in Riyadh. - AFP
European foreign ministers will meet at the end of January to discuss the lifting of sanctions on Syria, the EU foreign policy chief said on Sunday in Riyadh ahead of a meeting of top Middle Eastern and Western diplomats and Syria's new foreign minister.

Kaja Kallas, the EU foreign policy chief, said the foreign ministers would convene in Brussels on January 27 in an effort to decide how the 27-nation bloc would relax sanctions on Syria.

Any European decision to ease sanctions would be conditional on the new Syrian administration's approach to governing, which must include 'different groups' and women and 'no radicalisation', Kallas said, without elaborating.

'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, the first such meeting of Western and regional leaders hosted by Saudi Arabia since Assad's ouster, comes as Damascus urges the West to lift sanctions to help international funding flow more freely.

The US, Britain, the European Union and others imposed tough sanctions on Syria after a crackdown by Assad on pro-democracy protests in 2011 that spiralled into civil war. But the new reality in Syria has been complicated by sanctions on HTS - and some leaders - for its days as an al Qaeda affiliate.

Germany, which is leading the EU's discussion on sanctions, on Sunday proposed allowing relief for the Syrian population, but retaining sanctions on Assad allies who 'committed serious crimes' during Syria's war.

'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,' German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock told reporters in Riyadh.

She said Germany would provide a further €50 million for food, emergency shelters and medical care.

The United States on Monday issued a six month exemption of its sanctions for transactions with governing institutions in Syria to try to ease the flow of humanitarian assistance and allow some energy transactions. - Reuters