
(L to R) Foreign Ministers of Kuwait Abdullah Ali Al-Yahya, Germany Annalena Baerbock, Bahrain Abdullatif bin Rashid al-Zayani and Emirates Abdulla bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, pose for a group photograph with the participants of a meeting of top diplomats from the Middle East and Europe to discuss Syria, in Riyadh. AFP
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.
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 militant leader formerly known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani, whose Hayat Tahrir al-Sham 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 militants 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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