Top Western, Arab officials gather in Saudi Arabia to discuss Syria

Top Western, Arab officials gather in Saudi Arabia to discuss Syria

The Saudi capital’s first regional gathering since President Bashar al-Assad’s ouster last month saw the gathering of top diplomats from Western nations and the Middle East.

Syria’s new Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shaibani, who has repeatedly called for the removal of decades-old sanctions, arrived in Riyadh on Saturday evening, according to Saudi state news agency SPA.

Foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkiye will be articulating the regional stance at the meeting.

Additionally, David Lammy, British Foreign Secretary, and German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, will be present.

The conference comes as Syria’s new administration, led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), has urged the lifting of sanctions by the West to help international funding flow to Damascus.

According to analyst Rob Geist Pinfold, the Biden administration and the European Union are “moving in the direction the HTS wants them to go in terms of removing sanctions, or at least freezing sanctions.”

“The US has said they will freeze sanctions on things like paying public sector workers on providing energy supplies, for example, and that’s critical”, Pinfold, a lecturer at King’s College London, told Al Jazeera.

“Many of those sanctions were secondary sanctions,” meaning that doing business with Syria won’t just be done by US citizens or businesses but also by foreigners or third parties as well.

Sanctions relief

In an effort to stifle the flow of humanitarian aid, the US on Monday granted a sanctions exemption for dealing with Syrian government institutions for six months after al-Assad’s rule ended.

A final decision could only be made by the entire bloc, but Germany, Italy, and France have recently pushed for the relaxation of EU sanctions against Syria.

Possible priorities for relief include “those sanctions that are hindering the building up of a country, access to banking services and all these things”, the EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, told reporters in Riyadh on Sunday.

Germany’s Baerbock said on Sunday that sanctions against allies of al-Assad, who “committed serious crimes” during the Syrian civil war, must remain in place.

Al-Shaibani was appointed foreign minister on December 8 after a lightning rebel offensive overthrew al-Assad. The HTS, which led the advance, established a caretaker government.

Saudi Arabia will lead the meeting, which will be the first to feature Syria’s new rulers and top Western officials.

Following a meeting of top diplomats from the US, the UK, France, Germany, and the EU that was held on Thursday in Rome and a landmark meeting Jordan hosted in December, where regional players expressed concerns about Syria’s new rulers and what they need to do to win international support.

Source: Aljazeera

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