The European Union is lifting some sanctions on Syria to support efforts to stabilize Damascus following the December ousting of Bashar Assad, France's foreign minister said Monday.
EU foreign ministers were discussing the matter at a meeting in Brussels with the bloc's foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas having told Reuters that she was hopeful an agreement on easing the sanctions could be reached.
"Regarding Syria, we are going to decide today to lift, to suspend, certain sanctions that had applied to the energy and transport sectors and to financial institutions that were key to the financial stabilization of the country," French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on arrival at the EU meeting in Brussels.
He added that France would also propose slapping sanctions on Iranian officials responsible for the detention of French citizens in Iran.
"I will announce today that we will propose that those responsible for these arbitrary detentions may be sanctioned by the European Union in the coming months," he said.
Earlier in the day, EU top diplomat Kaja Kallas also voice hopes that the bloc's foreign ministers will be able to agree on gradually suspending the bloc's economic sanctions on Syria.
Ministers are to decide on a "roadmap" for a step-by-step approach, Kallas said as she arrived at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels.
Ahead of the meeting, EU diplomats stressed that the sanctions would be suspended rather than lifted as a precautionary measure until developments in the country are more clear.
If the EU begins to gradually lift the sanctions, the new leadership in Damascus must begin to rebuild the country, said Kallas.
"If the steps are going in the right direction we are also willing to take steps on our behalf," she said.
Kallas added that she is considering to fully reopen the EU's embassy in Damacus "to really have our eyes and ears on the ground."
Assad, whose family had ruled Syria with an iron fist for 54 years, was toppled by an anti-regime alliance on Dec. 8, bringing an abrupt end to a devastating 13-year civil war that had created one of the biggest refugee crises of modern times.
The conflict left large parts of many major cities in ruins, services decrepit and the vast majority of the population living in poverty. The harsh Western sanctions regime has effectively cut off its formal economy from the rest of the world.
