BRUSSELS: European Union nations on Monday set out conditions for lifting sanctions on Syria and kick-starting aid to the conflict-ravaged country amid uncertainty about its new leaders’ intentions just over a week after they seized power.
At a meeting in Brussels, the EU’s top diplomats said they want guarantees from members of Syria’s interim government that they are preparing for a peaceful political future involving all minority groups, one in which extremism and former allies Russia and Iran have no place.
Since Damascus fell on Dec. 8 and leader Bashar Assad fled to Moscow, Syria’s transition has been surprisingly smooth. Few reports have surfaced of reprisals, revenge killings or sectarian violence. Most looting or destruction has been quickly contained.
But the new leadership has yet to lay out a clear vision of how Syria will be governed. The interim government was set up by former opposition forces led by Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, or HTS, a former Al-Qaeda affiliate that the EU and US consider to be a terrorist organization.
The interim government is set to rule until March. Arab foreign ministers have called for UN-supervised elections based on a new constitution. The UN envoy to Syria has pressed for removing sanctions.
To understand more, the EU is sending an envoy to Damascus for talks with those at least temporarily in charge.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the bloc wants a “stable, peaceful and all-comprising government in place,” but that it will probably take weeks, if not months, for Syria’s new path to be clear.
“Syria faces an optimistic, positive, but rather uncertain future, and we have to make sure that this goes to the right direction,” she told reporters at a meeting of EU foreign ministers. “For us, it’s not only the words, but we want to see the deeds.”
In a message aimed at the new leaders, Kallas said: “Russia and Iran are not your friends, are not helping you if you are in trouble. They left Assad’s regime, and that is a very clear message showing that their hands are full elsewhere and they are weakened.”
Syria has been shattered by five decades of Assad family rule. Its economy has been destroyed, poverty is widespread, inflation and unemployment are high and corruption seeps through daily life. Millions of people have fled the country.
Hundreds of thousands of them live in Europe, and while some EU countries have suspended asylum applications from Syrian refugees, only those willing to return will be helped to get home, for now.
In 2011, the EU began imposing asset freezes and travel bans on Syrian officials and organizations in response to Assad’s crackdown on civilian protesters, which turned into civil war. The sanctions have been slapped on some 316 people and 86 entities accused of backing Assad.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said that before any sanctions are lifted or EU development aid sent to Syria, “a certain number of conditions must be met.” They include, he said, “a political transition that allows all Syrian minority groups to be represented, the respect of human rights, the rights of women in Syria (and) the rejection of terrorism and extremism.”
His Spanish counterpart, Jose Manuel Albares, said Syria’s new leaders must understand that the EU has some “red lines” which should be respected before support comes.
“We must guarantee the territorial integrity of Syria and we must make sure that there (is) no foreign interference,” he said. “If those questions are correctly addressed by the new authorities, then we can have a second conversation about sanctions.”
Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg said Europe’s support for Syria’s new leaders should not be “a blank check in advance,” whereby the bloc would be expected to lift all its sanctions and economic restrictions and then start talks.
Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp also told reporters that “regarding the Russian military bases in Syria, we want the Russians out.”
EU seeks assurances from Syria’s new leaders in exchange for dropping sanctions
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EU seeks assurances from Syria’s new leaders in exchange for dropping sanctions

- New leadership has yet to lay out a clear vision of how Syria will be governed
- Arab foreign ministers have called for UN-supervised elections based on a new constitution
Japan’s emperor begins a weeklong visit to Mongolia that will honor POWs
Naruhito’s visit marks the 80th anniversary of the end of WWII. In recent years, he has toured some of the places where the bloodiest battles and bombings occurred, including Iwo Jima, Okinawa and Hiroshima. The emperor has said it’s part of his effort at atonement and remembrance of the tragedy of war fought in the name of his grandfather, Emperor Hirohito.
While the vast majority of Japanese soldiers were taken to Siberia, around 12,000 to 14,000 ended up in Mongolia, which was fighting alongside the Soviets against Japan.
Most of the POWs were put to hard labor and construction work for the Mongolian government’s headquarters, a state university and a theater that are still preserved in the capital Ulaanbaatar. The prisoners toiled under harsh conditions and scarce food. Japanese records show about 1,700 of them died in Mongolia.
“As we mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the war this year, we should never forget the pain and sorrow of the people,” Naruhito said last week. “I believe it is important to not forget those who died, deepen understanding of the wartime past and to nurture the peace-loving heart.”
Naruhito had previously visited Mongolia as crown prince in 2007.
Two Iran Guards killed clearing explosives after Israel war

- Tasnim news agency, citing a statement from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said that “two members of the Guards were killed Sunday in Khorramabad while clearing the area of explosives left by the Zionist regime’s aggression”
TEHRAN: Two members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards were killed Sunday while attempting to defuse explosives in an area of the country’s west hit by Israeli strikes last month, Iranian media reported.
Israel and Iran fought a 12-day war sparked by an Israeli bombing campaign on June 13. The strikes, according to Israel, were aimed at preventing the Islamic republic from developing a nuclear weapon — an ambition Tehran has consistently denied.
Tasnim news agency, citing a statement from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said that “two members of the Guards were killed Sunday in Khorramabad while clearing the area of explosives left by the Zionist regime’s aggression.”
The Israeli strikes during the war killed key commanders of Iran’s armed forces, including Guards, as well as top nuclear scientists.
The strikes killed more than 900 people across Iran, its judiciary has said, while retaliatory Iranian missile barrages killed at least 28 people in Israel, according to official figures.
A ceasefire between the two arch-foes took effect on June 24.
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday made his first public appearance since the war broke out, state media reported, taking part in a religious ceremony in Tehran.
Iran announced the reopening of its airspace on Thursday, including over Tehran, which had been closed since the first day of the war.
Croatian right wing singer Marko Perkovic and fans perform pro Nazi salute at massive concert

- Organizers said that half a million people attended Perkovic’s concert in the Croatian capital
- The Nazi salute is punishable by law in Croatia, but courts have ruled Perkovic can use it as part of his song, the Croatian state television HRT said
ZAGREB: A hugely popular right-wing Croatian singer and hundreds of thousands of his fans performed a pro-Nazi World War II salute at a massive concert in Zagreb, drawing criticism.
One of Marko Perkovic’s most popular songs, played in the late Staurday concert, starts with the dreaded “For the homeland — Ready!” salute, used by Croatia’s Nazi-era puppet Ustasha regime that ran concentration camps at the time.
Perkovic, whose stage name is Thompson after a US-made machine gun, had previously said both the song and the salute focus on the 1991-95 ethnic war in Croatia, in which he fought using the American firearm, after the country declared independence from the former Yugoslavia. He says his controversial song is “a witness of an era.”
The 1990s conflict erupted when rebel minority Serbs, backed by neighboring Serbia, took up guns, intending to split from Croatia and unite with Serbia.
Perkovic’s immense popularity in Croatia reflects prevailing nationalist sentiments in the country 30 years after the war ended.
The WWII Ustasha troops in Croatia brutally killed tens of thousands of Serbs, Jews, Roma and antifascist Croats in a string of concentration camps in the country. Despite documented atrocities, some nationalists still view the Ustasha regime leaders as founders of the independent Croatian state.
Organizers said that half a million people attended Perkovic’s concert in the Croatian capital. Video footage aired by Croatian media showed many fans displaying pro-Nazi salutes earlier in the day.
The salute is punishable by law in Croatia, but courts have ruled Perkovic can use it as part of his song, the Croatian state television HRT said.
Perkovic has been banned from performing in some European cities over frequent pro-Nazi references and displays at his gigs.
Croatia’s Vecernji List daily wrote that the concert’s “supreme organization” has been overshadowed by the use of the salute of a regime that signed off on “mass executions of people.”
Regional N1 television noted that whatever the modern interpretations of the salute may be its roots are “undoubtedly” in the Ustasha regime era.
N1 said that while “Germans have made a clear cut” from anything Nazi-related “to prevent crooked interpretations and the return to a dark past ... Croatia is nowhere near that in 2025.”
In neighboring Serbia, populist President Aleksandar Vucic criticized Perkovic’s concerts as a display “of support for pro-Nazi values.” Former Serbian liberal leader Boris Tadic said it was a “great shame for Croatia” and “the European Union” because the concert “glorifies the killing of members of one nation, in this case Serbian.”
Croatia joined the EU in 2013.
Croatian police said Perkovic’s concert was the biggest ever in the country and an unseen security challenge, deploying thousands of officers.
No major incidents were reported.
South Korea prosecutors file request to detain ex-president Yoon

- Former leader facing charges related to insurrection from when he declared martial law last year
SEOUL: South Korean special prosecutors on Sunday filed a request to detain former President Yoon Suk Yeol on charges related to insurrection from when he declared martial law last year, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
“Detention request is related to allegations of abuse of power and obstruction of justice,” the statement from the special counsel of prosecutors investigating the December 3 incident said.
Yoon’s martial law decree was lifted about six hours after it was announced when lawmakers, who had been forced to scale the walls of the assembly building to make it through a ring of security forces, voted the decree down.
Yoon was summoned on Saturday for hours of questioning by the special counsel as part of the probe over the insurrection charges, according to the counsel officials.
Yoon’s lawyer was not immediately available for comment on Sunday.
Switzerland reopens its embassy in Tehran after two-week closure

VIENNA: Switzerland, which also represents US interests in Iran, has reopened its embassy in Tehran after a closure due to the air war between Israel and Iran, the Swiss foreign ministry said on Sunday.
“Ambassador Nadine Olivieri Lozano and a small team returned to Tehran yesterday overland via Azerbaijan. The embassy will gradually resume operations,” the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. It had been closed since June 20.