
Syria's new foreign minister Asaad al-Shaibani said sanctions must be lifted on his country "for security and economic stability to be achieved.” AFP
In an interview with Turkish state broadcaster TRT that aired Thursday, Asaad al-Shibani also said Syria’s new leadership wanted to “open a new page” in its diplomatic relations with countries that had cut diplomatic ties with Damascus during the Syrian civil war.
“The economic sanctions are one of the problems that the old regime left us,” al-Shibani said in the interview, which aired a day after he met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other Turkish officials in Ankara. “We are saying that there is no longer any need for them. The old regime is gone.”
“These sanctions must be lifted in order for people to live in better economic conditions and for security and economic stability to be achieved,” he added.
Syria’s conflict broke out in early 2011 and left nearly half a million people dead and millions displaced, including many who are now refugees. The war caused wide destruction that will need tens of billions of dollars to rebuild.
European countries and the United States imposed sanctions on Assad’s government shortly after the conflict started. They have been wary over the Islamist roots of the former insurgents who now lead an interim government.
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