BRUSSELS — The European Union on Monday began easing energy and transport sanctions and banking restrictions against Syria, aiming to help breathe life into the conflict-torn country’s economy if its new leaders work toward a peaceful future.
The EU started to impose asset freezes and travel bans on Syrian officials, banks, agencies and other organizations in 2011, in response to then-President Bashar Assad’s crackdown on protesters, which festered into a civil war.
But after Assad was toppled in a lightning rebel offensive in December, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the main former rebel group now in control of Syria, set up an interim administration, saying that a new government would be formed through an inclusive process by March.
Eager to encourage the new leadership, the EU said it was suspending measures targeting oil, gas and electricity as well as transport, and notably the aviation sector. The possibility to fund and provide certain economic resources to five banks will be reinstated.
Restrictions on the export of luxury goods to Syria for personal use will also be eased.
The decision to lift the sanctions was taken by EU foreign ministers and was made as part of efforts “to support an inclusive political transition in Syria, and its swift economic recovery, reconstruction, and stabilization,” a statement said.
The EU said that it would monitor developments in Syria to see whether other economic sanctions could be lifted, but it has also kept open the possibility of slapping the sanctions back on should the new leaders take the country in the wrong direction.
In January, former HTS leader Ahmad al-Sharaa was named Syria’s interim president after a meeting of most of the country’s former rebel factions. The groups agreed to dissolve the country’s constitution, the former national army, security service and official political parties.
International pressure has mounted for al-Sharaa to follow through on promises of an inclusive political transition. U.N. special envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen has said the formation of a “new inclusive government” by March 1 could help determine whether Western sanctions are lifted.
