A delegation from the Arab League, headed by Assistant Secretary-General Hossam Zaki, met with Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa and foreign minister Asaad Al-Shaibani in Damascus on Saturday.
During his visit to the Syrian capital Zaki said that the Arab League was working with Syria to lift sanctions on the country, saying there was no longer any reason for them.
“We are coordinating with Syria internationally regarding the lifting of sanctions because they are no longer justified,” Zaki said.
He also said that the Arab League was working with its member states to “activate” Syria’s membership in the organisation following the December 2024 ouster of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
“Syria’s membership is active after its suspension was lifted in 2023. We have presented our vision for Syria’s future to the new administration,” Zaki added.
Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Al-Shaibani called on the international community to lift sanctions and for the Arab League to take part in the reconstruction of Syria, saying his government was working to return Syrian refugees to the country.
“We are working to provide all the ways for the return of Syrians,” he said.
Sanctions against Syria were imposed by the United States, the European Union, and other entities in response to the Assad regime’s brutal suppression of peaceful protests in 2011 and its indiscriminate killing of Syrians in the conflict which followed.
In 2019, the United States intensified its sanctions on Syria, passing the Caesar Syrian Civilian Protection Act, named after a defected former Syrian military photographer who exposed the torture, starvation and brutality in Assad regime prisons with 54,000 harrowing images.
Despite the ouster of Assad however, the US has not lifted its sanctions, instead suspending some of them while extending the Caesar Act until 2029.
Six European countries have recently also called for temporary sanctions relief on Syria but EU sanctions targeting energy exports, banking, and transport remain in force.
