EU begins easing energy, transport, and banking sanctions against Syria

Above, a thermal natural gas and fuel-oil power plant serving Syria’s northern city of Aleppo on July 10, 2022. (AFP file photo)
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Updated 24 February 2025
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EU begins easing energy, transport, and banking sanctions against Syria

  • Sanctions relief in bid to help the country’s reconstruction after the fall of Bashar Assad

BRUSSELS: The EU on Monday began easing energy and transport sanctions and banking restrictions against the Syrian Arab Republic, aiming to help breathe life into the conflict-torn country’s economy if its new leaders work toward a peaceful future.
The EU started to impose asset freezes and travel bans on Syrian officials, banks, agencies, and other organizations in 2011 in response to then-President Bashar Assad’s actions against protesters, which festered into a civil war.
But after Assad was toppled in a lightning offensive in December, Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, the main former militant group now in control of Syria, set up an interim administration, saying that a new government would be formed through an inclusive process by March.




Syria's de facto leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa. (REUTERS)

Eager to encourage the new leadership, the EU said it was suspending measures targeting oil, gas and electricity, transport, and notably the aviation sector.
The possibility of funding and providing certain economic resources to five banks will be reinstated.
Restrictions on the export of luxury goods to Syria for personal use will also be eased.
The decision to lift the sanctions was taken by EU foreign ministers and was made as part of efforts “to support an inclusive political transition in Syria, and its swift economic recovery, reconstruction, and stabilization,” a statement said.

FASTFACT

UN special envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen has said that forming a ‘new inclusive government’ by March 1 could help determine whether Western sanctions are lifted.

The EU said that it would monitor developments in Syria to see whether other economic sanctions could be lifted, but it has also kept open the possibility of slapping the sanctions back on should the new leaders take the country in the wrong direction.
In January, former HTS leader Ahmad Al-Sharaa was named Syria’s president after a meeting of most of the country’s former rebel factions.
The groups agreed to dissolve the country’s constitution, the former national army, the security service, and official political parties.
International pressure has mounted for Al-Sharaa to follow through on promises of an inclusive political transition.
UN special envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen has said that forming a “new inclusive government” by March 1 could help determine whether Western sanctions are lifted.
Two Jordanian officials said Al-Sharaa would visit Jordan on Wednesday and meet King Abdullah to discuss boosting ties between neighboring countries.
The visit is the president’s third foreign trip with Saudi Arabia and Turkiye since he came to power.
Al-Sharaa is expected to hold wide-ranging talks over border security and ways of expanding commercial ties.
Assad’s relationships with most of the Arab world and his neighbors were strained throughout the nearly 14-year Syrian war.
Al-Sharaa has pledged to stamp out rampant drug smuggling along the two countries’ borders, which proliferated during the rule of toppled Assad and whom Jordan blamed on militias that held sway in southern Syria.
Jordan, which hosted the first international conference on Syria a week after Assad was forced to flee, wants to see a peaceful political transition in Syria, fearing a return of chaos and instability along its borders.
Officials have said they were ready to help Syria rebuild and promised to help it ease its acute power shortages by supplying it with electricity and gas.
Al-Sharaa received an invitation on Sunday to attend an Egyptian-hosted Arab League meeting on Gaza.
The Cairo meeting would be the first time Al-Sharaa represents Syria in the Arab League.
“The president of the Syrian Arab Republic, Mr Ahmed Al-Sharaa, received an official invitation from the president of Egypt ... to participate in the extraordinary Arab League summit” on March 4 in Cairo, the presidency’s statement said.
Syria under Assad was suspended from the Arab League in 2011. Damascus was allowed to return to the regional bloc in 2023.
The end of Assad’s rule has upended the geopolitics of the Middle East, clearing the way for other states to build new ties with a country at the crossroads of the region.
A long-awaited national dialogue conference intended to help chart Syria’s political future was being launched on Monday.
The main session will be held on Tuesday, with participants holding workshops to discuss transitional justice, the structure of a new constitution, reforming and building institutions, personal freedoms, the role of civil society and the country’s economy.
The outcome of the national dialogue will be nonbinding recommendations to the country’s new leaders.

 


Israel is trying to destabilize Lebanon and Syria, Arab League chief laments

Updated 6 sec ago
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Israel is trying to destabilize Lebanon and Syria, Arab League chief laments

  • Aboul Gheit says targeted assassinations in Lebanon an unacceptable breach of the ceasefire agreement Israel signed late last year
  • Israel’s actions were driven by narrow domestic agendas at the expense of civilian lives and regional peace, Arab League chief adds

CAIRO: Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit on Saturday accused Israel of trying to destabilize Syria and Lebanon through military provocations, in “flagrant disregard for international legal norms.”

In a statement, Aboul Gheit said that global inaction had further emboldened Israel.

“(T)he wars waged by Israel on the occupied Palestinian territories, Lebanon and Syria have entered a new phase of complete recklessness, deliberately violating signed agreements, invading countries and killing more civilians,” said the statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency.

He said that Israel’s resumption of targeted assassinations in Lebanon was an unacceptable and condemnable breach of the ceasefire agreement it signed with Lebanon late last year. 

Aboul Gheit said that Israel’s actions were driven by narrow domestic agendas at the expense of civilian lives and regional peace.

“It seems that the Israeli war machine does not want to stop as long as the occupation leaders insist on facing their internal crises by exporting them abroad, and this situation has become clear to everyone,” he said.

According to the Gaza Ministry of Health’s count last week, more than 50,000 people have been killed and more than 113,200 wounded in Israeli attacks on Palestinian territories in retaliation against the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack on southern Israel.

In Lebanon, war monitors have said that at least 3,961 people were killed and 16,520 wounded in Israel’s war with the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement from Oct. 8, 2023 to Nov. 26, 2024.

Syria’s new government accused Israel on April 3 of mounting a deadly destabilization campaign after a wave of strikes on military targets, including an airport, and a ground incursion that killed 13 people in the southern province of Daraa. 


Video shows last moments for slain Gaza aid workers, Red Crescent says

Updated 7 min 51 sec ago
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Video shows last moments for slain Gaza aid workers, Red Crescent says

  • Video appears to contradict the Israeli military’s claims, showing ambulances traveling with their headlights and emergency lights clearly flashing

GAZA: A video recovered from the cellphone of an aid worker killed in Gaza alongside other rescuers shows their final moments, according to the Palestine Red Crescent, with clearly marked ambulances and emergency lights flashing as heavy gunfire erupts.
The aid worker was among 15 humanitarian personnel who were killed on March 23 in an attack by Israeli forces, according to the United Nations and the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS).
The Israeli military has said its soldiers “did not randomly attack” any ambulances, insisting they fired on “terrorists” approaching them in “suspicious vehicles.”
Military spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani said that troops opened fire on vehicles that had no prior clearance from Israeli authorities and had their lights off.
But the video released by PRCS on Saturday appears to contradict the Israeli military’s claims, showing ambulances traveling with their headlights and emergency lights clearly flashing.
The video, apparently filmed from inside a moving vehicle, captures a red firetruck and ambulances driving through the night.
The vehicles stop beside another on the roadside, and two uniformed men exit. Moments later, intense gunfire erupts.
In the video, the voices of two medics are heard — one saying, “the vehicle, the vehicle,” and another responding: “It seems to be an accident.”
Seconds later, a volley of gunfire breaks out, and the screen goes black.
PRCS said it had found the video on the phone of Rifat Radwan, one of the deceased aid workers.
“This video unequivocally refutes the occupation’s claims that Israeli forces did not randomly target ambulances, and that some vehicles had approached suspiciously without lights or emergency markings,” PRCS said in a statement.
“The footage exposes the truth and dismantles this false narrative.”
Those killed included eight PRCS staff, six members of the Gaza civil defense agency and one employee of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, also known as UNRWA.
Their bodies were found buried near Rafah in what the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) described as a mass grave.

This image grab from a handout video reportedly recovered from the cellphone of an aid worker killed in Gaza alongside other rescuers and released by the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS)on April 5, 2025, shows a fire truck and rescuers running toward a vehicle in Rafah in the northern Gaza Strip, according to the PRCS. (AFP)



ATTACK ON AID WORKERS
OCHA has said that the first team was targeted by Israeli forces at dawn on that day. In the hours that followed, additional rescue and aid teams searching for their colleagues were also struck in a series of successive attacks.
According to the PRCS, the convoy had been dispatched in response to emergency calls from civilians trapped under bombardment in Rafah.
In the video, a medic recording the scene can be heard reciting the Islamic declaration of faith, the shahada, which Muslims traditionally say in the face of death.
“There is no God but God, Mohammed is his messenger,” he says repeatedly, his voice trembling with fear as intense gunfire continues in the background.
He is also heard saying: “Forgive me mother because I chose this way, the way of helping people.”
He then says, “accept my martyrdom, God, and forgive me.” Just before the footage ends, he is heard saying, “The Jews are coming, the Jews are coming,” referring to Israeli soldiers.
The deaths of the aid workers has sparked international condemnation.
Jonathan Whittall, the head of OCHA in the Palestinian territories, said the bodies of the humanitarian workers were “in their uniforms, still wearing gloves” when they were found.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, condemned the attack, raising concerns over possible “war crimes” by the Israeli military.
“I am appalled by the recent killings of 15 medical personnel and humanitarian aid workers, which raise further concerns over the commission of war crimes by the Israeli military,” Volker Turk told the UN Security Council on Thursday.
Turk called for an “independent, prompt and thorough investigation” into the attack.
An Israeli military official said the bodies had been covered “in sand and cloth” to avoid damage until coordination with international organizations could be arranged for their retrieval.
The military said it was investigating the attack.


Iran president fires deputy over pricey Antarctica trip

Updated 05 April 2025
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Iran president fires deputy over pricey Antarctica trip

  • A photo shared on social media showed Dabiri posing near the Plancius cruise ship
  • The government faced strong criticism after the photo was published

TEHRAN: Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Saturday dismissed his deputy for parliamentary affairs over a costly trip to Antarctica, as the country grapples with hyperinflation amid a biting economic crisis.
A photo shared on social media in recent days showed the now former vice president, Shahram Dabiri, alongside a woman identified as his wife, posing near the Plancius cruise ship.
The Dutch-flagged vessel has offered luxury expeditions to Antarctica since 2009, with one agency pricing an eight-day trip at 3,885 euros per person.
“In a context where economic pressure on the population remains high... expensive leisure trips by officials, even if paid out of their own pocket, are neither defensible nor justifiable,” the Iranian president wrote in a letter published Saturday by the official IRNA news agency, which noted that Dabiri was dismissed.
Dabiri, a 64-year-old physician by profession and a close confidant of Pezeshkian, had been appointed to the post in August.
The government faced strong criticism after the photo was published, and several of Pezeshkian’s supporters urged him to remove the official.
IRNA late last month cited a source in Dabiri’s office as saying that he had made the trip before he held a governmental position.
The controversy is another major blow for Pezeshkian, who was elected last year on a promise to revive the economy and improve the daily lives of his fellow citizens.
In early March, his Economy Minister Abdolnasser Hemmati was dismissed by parliament amid a sharp depreciation of the national currency against the dollar and soaring inflation.


Israel is trying to destabilize Lebanon and Syria: Arab League chief

Updated 05 April 2025
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Israel is trying to destabilize Lebanon and Syria: Arab League chief

  • Targeted assassinations in Lebanon an unacceptable breach of the ceasefire agreement Israel signed late last year, Aboul Gheit said

CAIRO: Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit on Saturday accused Israel of trying to destabilize Syria and Lebanon through military provocations, in “flagrant disregard for international legal norms.”

In a statement, Aboul Gheit said that global inaction had further emboldened Israel.

“(T)he wars waged by Israel on the occupied Palestinian territories, Lebanon and Syria have entered a new phase of complete recklessness, deliberately violating signed agreements, invading countries and killing more civilians,” said the statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency.

He said that Israel’s resumption of targeted assassinations in Lebanon was an unacceptable and condemnable breach of the ceasefire agreement it signed with Lebanon late last year. 

Aboul Gheit said that Israel’s actions were driven by narrow domestic agendas at the expense of civilian lives and regional peace.

“It seems that the Israeli war machine does not want to stop as long as the occupation leaders insist on facing their internal crises by exporting them abroad, and this situation has become clear to everyone,” he said.

According to the Gaza Ministry of Health’s count last week, more than 50,000 people have been killed and more than 113,200 wounded in Israeli attacks on Palestinian territories in retaliation against the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack on southern Israel.

In Lebanon, war monitors have said that at least 3,961 people were killed and 16,520 wounded in Israel’s war with the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement from Oct. 8, 2023 to Nov. 26, 2024.

Syria’s new government accused Israel on April 3 of mounting a deadly destabilization campaign after a wave of strikes on military targets, including an airport, and a ground incursion that killed 13 people in the southern province of Daraa. 


Syrian government says studying Amnesty report on massacres

Updated 05 April 2025
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Syrian government says studying Amnesty report on massacres

Damascus: Syria’s government said late Friday it was “closely following” the findings of a new Amnesty International report urging an investigation into sectarian massacres last month.
Amnesty called on the Syrian government in a report on Thursday to ensure accountability for the massacres targeting the Alawite minority, saying they may constitute war crimes.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor has said security forces and allied groups killed more than 1,700 civilians, mostly Alawites, during the violence.
Interim President Ahmed Al-Sharaa, whose Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) led the offensive that toppled longtime ruler Bashar Assad in December, has vowed to prosecute those responsible.
In a statement on Friday, the government said it had been “following closely the Amnesty report” and its “preliminary findings.”
“It is up to the Independent National Commission for Investigation and Fact-Finding to evaluate them, in accordance with the mandate, independence, and broad powers granted to it by presidential decree,” it said.
The Syrian authorities have accused armed Assad supporters of sparking the violence by attacking the new security forces.
The government on Friday complained the report failed to note “the broader context of the events.”
It said the violence began with a “premeditated assault” by the “remnants of the previous regime, targeting army and internal security personnel.”
In the ensuing chaos, “acts of retaliation and serious violations occurred,” it said, vowing that these would be investigated and a report issued within a month.