PARIS (AP) — The European Union lifted a wide range of sanctions on Syria on Wednesday, but slapped new ones on people and groups it says participated in attacks on civilians during a wave of violence in the Syrian coastal region in March.
The move lifted most sanctions that had been imposed on the country, including on its financial system, while keeping them in place on individuals and organizations in Syria it says violated human rights or for “security grounds,” like the extended family of former President Bashar Assad or its chemical weapons program, according to the text of the European Council on the decision.
The EU’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas had announced plans to lift the sanctions last week. She said the move was “conditional” and that sanctions could be resumed if the new government of Ahmad al-Sharaa – a former rebel commander who led the charge that unseated Assad in December – doesn’t keep the peace.
Kallas said in a statement Wednesday that removing sanctions “is simply the right thing to do, at this historic time, for the EU to genuinely support Syria’s recovery and a political transition that fulfils the aspirations of all Syrians.”
Wednesday’s decision slapped “restrictive measures” on two people and three armed groups that were accused of “targeting civilians and especially the Alawite community” – referring to the religious minority to which Assad belongs – during violence in March on the coast and of torture and “arbitrary killings of civilians.”
Clashes erupted at the time after a group of Assad loyalists attacked security forces near the coastal city of Latakia. Rights groups reported widespread revenge killings as militants from Syria’s Sunni majority – some of them officially affiliated with the new government’s security forces – targeted Alawites, regardless of whether they were involved in the insurgency. Hundreds of civilians were killed.
The new government in Damascus has promised to hold perpetrators accountable, but a body formed to investigate the violence has yet to release its findings. While there have not been large-scale attacks on Alawites since March, members of the community remain fearful and say that individual incidents of kidnappings and killing continue to take place.
The two people targeted by the new sanctions are Mohammad Hussein al-Jasim, leader of the Sultan Suleiman Shah Brigade, and Sayf Boulad Abu Bakr, leader of the Hamza Division, both armed groups that the EU said had taken part in the attacks. The militias were also slapped with new sanctions, as was another armed group, the Sultan Murad Division.
Since seizing power, al-Sharaa’s government has struggled to weld a patchwork of undisciplined former rebel factions together into a national army.
The lifting of the broader sanctions on Syria comes days after the United States granted Syria sweeping exemptions from sanctions in a first step toward fulfilling President Donald Trump’s pledge to lift a half-century of penalties on a country shattered by 13 years of civil war. A measure by the U.S. State Department waived for six months a tough set of sanctions imposed by Congress in 2019.
The easing of sanctions removes one of the major barriers to reconstruction of the country, which the United Nations in 2017 estimated would cost at least $250 billion. Some experts now say that number could reach at least $400 billion.
The United Nations estimates that 90% of Syrians live in poverty and state-supplied electricity comes as little as two hours every day.
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Sewell reported from Beirut.
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