Syria welcomes US decision to ease Assad-era sanctions as 'positive step'

DAMASCUS: Syria considers the move by the Trump administration to ease sanctions imposed on the war-torn country as a "positive step" to ease humanitarian and economic suffering, its foreign ministry said.

In a statement, the ministry said Syria "extends its hand" to anyone that wants to cooperate with Damascus, on the condition that there is no intervention in the country's internal affairs.

The statement came after the Trump administration granted Syria sweeping exemptions from sanctions on Friday in a major first step toward fulfilling the president's pledge to lift a half-century of penalties on a country shattered by 14 years of civil war.

Thomas Barrack, the US ambassador to Turkey who has also been appointed as special envoy for Syria, met with Syria's president and foreign minister during their visit to Turkey on Saturday, adding the President Ahmad al-Sharaa welcomed Washington's "fast action on lifting sanctions."

"President Trump's goal is to enable the new government to create the conditions for the Syrian people to not only survive but thrive," Barrack said in a statement.

Barrack said he stressed that the cessation of sanctions against Syria will preserve the integrity "of our primary objective - the enduring defeat of" the Islamic State group, also known as IS or ISIS. He added that it will give Syrians a chance for a better future. "I also commended President al-Sharaa on taking meaningful steps towards enacting President Trump's points on foreign terrorist fighters, counter-ISIS measures, relations with Israel, and camps and detention centres in Northeast Syria," Barrack said.