Western economic sanctions against Damascus should disappear in the coming weeks. Tuesday, May 20, Kaja Kallas, the head of European diplomacy, announced a political agreement of the twenty-seven for a total lifting of the economic sanctions inflicted on Syria since the trigger of the civil war, in 2011. A relief for the interim president, Ahmed al-Charaa, in Damascus, which tries to relaunch the economy of a lamb country, after the fall of the regime of Bashar al-Assad.
As of February, Europeans had announced their desire to gradually lift the restrictive measures, starting with those concerning the energy sectors and transport. In April, the United Kingdom had also decided to soften its own. But the surprise announcement, on May 13, of Donald Trump of a total lifting of American sanctions on Syria forced Brussels to accelerate the tempo. The European Union (EU) intends to abolish measures against Syrian financial institutions, in particular the central bank and commercial banks.
“The EU has always been held alongside the Syrians in the past fourteen years – we will continue to do so”insisted Kaja Kallas, welcoming the American decision, which should be decisive. It is these American sanctions, said secondary, which were the most penalizing, preventing a number of governments and international companies from legally sending funds to Syria or operating in the country.
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Source: Lemonde