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European countries have been grappling with how to handle new regime following downfall of Bashar al-Assad, with timeline for lifting sanctions moving onto agenda.
The EU is laying preliminary groundwork to a wide-ranging lifting of sanctions on Syria, including on transportation, exports of oil and gas, financial and banking activities, according to a non-paper seen by Euronews.The non-paper – an informal EU document used by member states in closed door negotiations – also says that any possible delisting as terrorist groups of Al-Qaeda related factions such as Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), must be decided at UN Security Council level before being implemented by the EU.“It will depend on our joint assessment of the listed entity HTS and its leader Al-Shara’a and of the evolution on the ground in Syria,” says the paper.“Any delisting of the group would have to be condition-based, to prevent any risk of terrorism financing and to ensure that Syria does not turn into a place for terrorist groups which foreign fighters would wish to join,” it added.The paper has been produced by the EU Council for negotiations and is expected to be substantively discussed and potentially agreed during a meeting of EU foreign affairs ministers on 27 January.Bashar al-Assad and its affiliates cannot benefit from the lifting and will still be subjected to sanctions, according to the document.HTS is an Islamic militia faction that led the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime. The group used to be the Al-Qaeda branch in Syria and had relations with ISIS in the region.Since the fall of the Assad regime in early December last year, EU countries have been keen to change their geopolitical approach to the country, with many questions remaining on how the new leadership under the HTS will shape the new Syria. EU countries want to lift restrictions on airlines, such as the Syrian Arab Airlines, according to the document, to “facilitate civilian flight operations between the EU and Syria”. A removal of “export ban on oil and gas technology, as well as restrictions on export and participation in infrastructure projects and financing” are among openings proposed in the paper.Lifted restrictions are also foreseen for “high-value commercial assets, such as vehicles” to enable Syrians to relocate their business in the country.Reopening banking and investment relations is among the listed proposals. “financial channels between the EU and Syria need to be reopened, including the reestablishment of some banking relationship between Syrian banks and EU banks,” the document says.
