EU lifts sweeping energy, transport sanctions on Syria
BRUSSELS — EU foreign ministers decided on Monday to suspend a series of far-reaching sanctions against Syria to help the country's economic recovery and reconstruction after nearly 14 years of civil war.The Council decided to remove five financial entities (Industrial Bank, Popular Credit Bank, Saving Bank, Agricultural Cooperative Bank and Syrian Arab Airlines) from the list of entities subject to the freezing of funds and economic resources and to allow funds and economic resources to be made available to the Central Bank of Syria.The EU has also suspended sectoral measures in the oil, gas, electricity, and transport sectors and introduced exemptions to the ban on banking relations between Syrian banks and financial institutions in the EU to facilitate transactions for humanitarian and reconstruction purposes, as well as for the energy and transport sectors.The bloc will monitor the country's situation to guarantee that suspensions remain appropriate with Kaja Kallas, the EU's top diplomat, stressing that "if everything does not go right, then we are also ready to put the sanctions back"."Any kind of government needs to be all-inclusive and taking into account all the different groups that are in Syria,' she said.Most of the EU's sanctions were imposed following Bashar al-Assad's violent crackdown on Syrian protesters in 2011, including broad restrictions on trade, financial transactions, and key industries such as energy and transport.The sanctions led to the collapse of EU-Syria economic relations, with trade flows worth €396 million in 2023.The regime of Bashar al-Assad was toppled in December last year by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which has since been calling for the lifting of wide-ranging sanctions to help the war-torn country's economy.There have also been calls to remove HTS and its leader Ahmed al-Sharaa from international terrorist lists, but the Council decided to maintain such lists in relation to the al-Assad regime, as well as those on arms trafficking, dual-use goods, the chemical weapons sector, and illicit drug trafficking, among others.The EU's blacklist, which was renewed in November, covers 318 individuals and 86 entities. All are subject to an assets freeze and a travel ban.More than 90% of Syrians live below the poverty line and at least 16.5 million people across Syria rely on some form of humanitarian assistance to meet their basic needs, according to a report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).Last week, Human Rights Watch (HRW) warned that sweeping EU, US, and UK sanctions on Syria are hampering the country's economic recovery and preventing millions of Syrians from accessing essential services such as electricity, health care, water, and education.'Rather than using broad sectoral sanctions as leverage for shifting political objectives, Western governments should recognize their direct harm to civilians and take meaningful steps to lift restrictions that impede access to basic rights,' said Hiba Zayadin, senior Syria researcher at HRW.
'A piecemeal approach of temporary exemptions and limited waivers is not enough. Sanctions that harm civilians should immediately be lifted, not refined,' Zayadin added. — Euronews
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Al Arabiya
29 minutes ago
- Al Arabiya
Slovakia cannot support new EU sanctions against Russia without energy solutions, PM says
Slovakia will not back the EU's 18th package of sanctions against Russia unless the European Commission provides a solution to the situation the country faces if the bloc phases out Russian energy as planned, Prime Minister Robert Fico said. The Commission proposed on Tuesday a new round of sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine more than three years ago, targeting Moscow's energy revenues, its banks and its military industry. Fico has criticized separate European Union plans to phase out Russian gas and other energy imports in the coming years, which the EU executive announced last month, calling them 'economic suicide.' Hungary, which like Slovakia, continues to rely on Russian gas and oil supplies, and like Slovakia has maintained warm ties with Moscow, has also rejected the plans. EU countries will start debating the sanctions proposals this week, which require unanimity in the bloc for approval. 'Slovakia will not support the upcoming 18th sanctions package against Russia unless the European Commission provides it with a real solution to the crisis situation that Slovakia will find itself in after the complete cessation of gas, oil and nuclear fuel supplies from Russia,' Fico wrote in a Facebook post late on Tuesday. Slovakia has not blocked any previous sanctions packages. But Fico had said over the weekend Slovakia would block any sanctions that harmed its national interests. The Commission's new sanctions package proposes banning transactions with Russia's Nord Stream gas pipelines, as well as banks that engage in sanctions circumvention. The Commission has also proposed lowering the Group of Seven nations' price cap on Russian crude oil to $45 a barrel, from $60 a barrel, to cut Russia's energy revenues. Fico has long opposed sanctions against Russia, saying they harmed Slovakia and the EU more than Moscow.
Arab News
10 hours ago
- Arab News
Syria rescuers say two killed in drone strikes on northwest
DAMASCUS: Two people were killed in separate drone strikes Tuesday on a car and a motorcycle in the northwestern bastion of the Islamist former rebels who now head the Syrian government, rescuers said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the twin drone strikes in the Idlib region but a US-led coalition in Syria has carried out past strikes on terrorists in the area. Earlier this year, the United States said it killed several commanders of Al-Qaeda's Syria affiliate Hurras Al-Din in the area. The group had recently announced it was breaking up on the orders of the interim government set up by the rebels after their overthrow of Bashar Assad in December. US troops are deployed in Syria as part of a US-led coalition to fight the Daesh group. When contacted by AFP, a US defense official said they were aware of the reports but had 'nothing to provide' at the time. During a meeting in Riyadh last month, US President Donald Trump called on his Syrian counterpart Ahmed Al-Sharaa to help Washington prevent a resurgence by Daesh.
Arab News
14 hours ago
- Arab News
Two-state solution summit should be bold and daring
When France and Saudi Arabia co-chair the International Conference for the Peaceful Settlement of the Palestinian Question and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution in New York later this month, it might be the last opportunity for the international community to salvage a peace agreement along these lines. Beyond making a bold statement about its commitment to bringing this conflict to a peaceful end, it must send a message, in no uncertain terms, that it will not tolerate any attempts to block such a solution. The wording of the invitation to the willing participants reflects a determination to make this gathering count, by stating that 'the conference is intended to serve as a point of no return, paving the way for ending the occupation and promoting a permanent settlement based on the two-state solution.' But to be successful, it must be followed by courageous actions. To begin with, France, the UK and other EU members that have not done so already should recognize Palestinian statehood. This would be a long overdue but necessary acknowledgement that recognizing Palestinian statehood is not conditional on the Palestinian leadership succumbing to any demand for concessions by Israel. Such recognition will remove a crucial aspect of the asymmetry between the two protagonists in one of the longest-running conflicts in modern history. It will ensure that all who live in historical Palestine enjoy the same human, political and civil rights and are capable of fulfilling their national aspirations and individual potential, as was already envisaged in UN Resolution 181 of 1947, better known as the Partition Plan. It is of immense significance that this conference will be co-chaired by Saudi-Arabia and France, representing a unique cooperation. It brings together a leading regional force that, in 2002, initiated the most promising peace plan that could have put this conflict behind us, had it not been rejected by Israel, and a major European force that is also a permanent member of the UN Security Council. This must have enough weight, together with the other high-level participants, to encourage the Israeli and Palestinian leaderships to understand that it is high time for them to move forward along the route to a two-state solution deal. There are many out there who are skeptical that the two-state solution is still possible and who suspect that such a conference is either a naive attempt or simply lip service to bringing about a peace that will never materialize. Both views are misplaced and unhelpful, not because a two-state solution is a panacea by itself, but because, among all possible alternatives, it is still the most viable answer, although it does need to be adjusted to reflect changing circumstances since the Oslo process collapsed. Most promising is a confederation model that is, in principle, a two-state solution in a one-state reality, which best reflects the current state of affairs. France, the UK and EU members that have not done so already should recognize Palestinian statehood. Yossi Mekelberg The alternative to a two-state solution is to once more let the current situation drag on and risk even worse consequences than the world has witnessed over the last 20 months, for both peoples, with far-reaching implications for the region and beyond. There are also three possible models of a one-state solution — and they are all either unattractive or unviable. The ultrareligious-nationalists in Israel aspire to a single state in which the West Bank and Gaza are annexed by Israel and as many Palestinians as possible are 'encouraged' to leave to ensure an absolute Jewish majority in historic Palestine, possibly resulting in another Nakba. For Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the one-state solution is one in which there is no place for an Israeli state — and their brand of Islamism would hardly leave room for a tolerant state for either Israelis or Palestinians. The third version of a one-state solution is one of equal rights for all its citizens, Israelis and Palestinians alike. Nevertheless, as much as this is, on the face of it, a commendable vision of both communities putting behind them many decades of conflict and bloodshed and finding a way to peacefully coexist under one system of governance and one constitution, sharing a sentiment of a common future and destiny, it is no more than pleasant fantasy. There is no modality for such a rapid transformation and past experiences, such as those of Yugoslavia, Cyprus and even Czechoslovakia, have ended in separation, sometimes accompanied by bloodshed. The conference must see itself as possibly a last-chance saloon for advancing the cause of the two-state solution. Yossi Mekelberg In order for these ideas, which range between inevitable disaster and the utopian, to be prevented from taking hold of the Israeli-Palestinian discourse, the conference in New York must see itself as possibly a last-chance saloon for advancing the cause of the two-state solution. Hence, it must take concrete measures to initiate a peace process by setting a tight timeline and milestones on the way to establishing an independent Palestinian state along the approximate lines of the 1967 borders. If such a framework is introduced — with incentives for both sides to adhere to it and severe consequences if they do not — there is a good chance for a new momentum toward peace to emerge out of this international gathering. Moreover, if, by the time the delegates of the conference convene, a new ceasefire deal is not concluded, the first message from the conference must be a demand from the UN Security Council to pass a resolution to this effect. It must be one that will also see the release of the hostages and allow unlimited humanitarian aid to enter Gaza, as a first step toward the reconstruction of the Strip and the rehabilitation of the Palestinian people and their society, along a path toward a comprehensive peace agreement. It is true that the main responsibility for resolving the conflict still rests with the two parties themselves. And it was a previous US secretary of state who said, following the collapse of his peace initiative in 2014, that 'the United States cannot want peace more than the parties to the conflict.' Much water has flowed down the Jordan river since then, but the sentiment is still correct. Yet, collectively, the international community has the ability to use its levers of power to make both sides understand that it is in their interest to bring about peace — and, should either side deliberately derail the peace process, to make them accountable. This French-Saudi initiative to convene a conference on resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict could not be timelier, despite and maybe because it is taking place at the lowest and most volatile and tragic point in relations between the two main antagonists. This should serve as enough of an impetus not to fail again, as the price of failure, playing out on our screens every single day, is intolerable for those who live with it and unforgivable for those who do not stop it.
