EU suspends Syria sanctions to encourage democratic development

The bloc announced on Monday that it had suspended restrictions on oil, gas and electricity, along with sanctions on the transport sector including aviation, with immediate effect.

However, it cautioned that the decision could be reversed should Syria’s de facto leadership not implement expected reforms.

The EU also reinstated the possibility to fund and provide certain economic resources to five banks. Restrictions on the export of luxury goods to Syria for personal use will also be eased.

The EU maintains a wide range of sanctions on entire economic sectors and individuals in Syria, levied during the rule of ousted President Bashar al-Assad. The country’s new leadership has urged the West to ease the restrictions in order to help Syria recover from years of despotic rule and civil war.

The EU said in a statement that its foreign ministers had made the decision to suspend select sanctions as part of efforts to “support an inclusive political transition in Syria, and its swift economic recovery, reconstruction, and stabilisation”.

The bloc added that should Syria’s interim rulers move in the wrong direction, sanctions could be quickly slapped back on.

Ahmad al-Sharaa, the leader of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) armed group, was named interim president last month after a meeting of most of the country’s former rebel factions that overthrew al-Assad and five decades of his family’s rule.

Al-Sharaa has been meeting with regional and international leaders in an effort to establish ties and lead a reconstruction campaign after over a decade of war devastated the country and left parts of Syria occupied by foreign forces.

Syria’s new authorities are expected to hold a national dialogue conference starting on Tuesday to discuss a new path for the nation.

The conference has been a key pledge for the new government to shape a constitutional framework, an economic roadmap and a plan for institutional reform as it also seeks to lift sanctions imposed by the United States.

A new government that the authorities have promised to form by next month is expected to take into account ideas and proposals to be put forward in the conference.

Geir Pedersen, United Nations special envoy for Syria, said the formation of a “new inclusive government” by March 1 could help determine whether more Western sanctions are lifted.