RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (news agencies) — Germany’s foreign minister said Sunday that sanctions against Syrian officials responsible for war crimes must remain in place but called for a “smart approach” to provide relief to the Syrian population after last month’s overthrow of President Bashar Assad.
Annalena Baerbock spoke to reporters after arriving in Saudi Arabia for a conference on Syria’s future attended by top European and Middle Eastern diplomats.
Germany is one of several countries that imposed sanctions on the Assad government over its brutal crackdown on dissent. Those penalties could hinder Syria’s recovery from nearly 14 years of civil war that killed an estimated 500,000 people and displaced half the prewar population of 23 million.
“Sanctions against Assad’s henchmen who committed serious crimes during the civil war must remain in place,” Baerbock said. “But Germany proposes to take a smart approach to sanctions, providing rapid relief for the Syrian population. Syrians now need a quick dividend from the transition of power.”
Baerbock announced an additional 50 million euros ($51.2 million) in German aid for food, emergency shelters and medical care, highlighting the ongoing struggles of millions of Syrians displaced by the war.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, who also attended the meeting, said European countries want to see a government that includes all of Syria’s religious and ethnic communities. “We want to see inclusivity of women also in the process, so these are the things that we are going to discuss,” she said.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said his country, which was a strong supporter of the Syrian opposition to Assad, would try to aid Syria in normalizing ties with the international community.
He said it was important to establish “a balance between the expectations of the international community and the realities faced by the new administration in Syria.”
He pledged Turkish support to the new government, especially in combating threats from the Islamic State group. “As Turkey, we are ready to do our part to ease the difficult path ahead for the Syrian people,” he said in comments carried by Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency.
Last week, the United States eased some of its restrictions on Syria, with the U.S. Treasury issuing a general license, lasting six months, that authorizes certain transactions with the Syrian government, including some energy sales and incidental transactions.
The U.S. has also dropped a $10 million bounty it had offered for the capture of Ahmad al-Sharaa, a Syrian rebel leader formerly known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani, whose forces led the ouster of Assad last month. Al-Sharaa was a former senior al-Qaida militant who broke with the group years ago and has pledged an inclusive Syria that respects the rights of religious minorities.
The rebels led a lightning insurgency that ousted Assad on Dec. 8 and ended his family’s decades-long rule.
Much of the world severed ties with Assad and imposed sanctions on his government — and its Russian and Iranian allies — over alleged war crimes and the manufacturing of the amphetamine-like stimulant Captagon, which reportedly generated billions of dollars as packages of the little white pills were smuggled across Syria’s porous borders.
With Assad out of the picture, Syria’s new authorities hope that the international community will pour money into the country to rebuild its battered infrastructure and make its economy viable again.
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