\n By Euronews\n<\/p>\n
\n Published on
\n 07\/11\/2025 – 12:10 GMT+1\n <\/p>\n
The UN Security Council voted Thursday to lift sanctions on Syria’s interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa and government members days before his historic White House visit, the first by a Syrian president to Washington since 1946.<\/p>\n
The resolution dropping UN sanctions tied to al-Sharaa and Interior Minister Anas Hasan Khattab passed with 14 members in favour and China abstaining.<\/p>\n
“The Council is sending a strong political signal that recognises Syria is in a new era since (ousted ruler Bashar) al-Assad and his associates were toppled in December 2024,” US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz said.<\/p>\n
Chinese Ambassador to the UN Fu Cong said Beijing supports the Syrian people, but the Washington-led proposal inadequately addressed “the legitimate concerns of all parties” regarding counterterrorism and security in Syria.<\/p>\n
US officials pushed to pass the mostly symbolic motion before Monday, when President Donald Trump hosts al-Sharaa in the first Syrian presidential visit to Washington since the country’s independence. <\/p>\n
The sanctions relief fulfils the Trump administration’s pledges following the US leader’s May meeting with al-Sharaa in Riyadh, during which he promised to lift or waive decades-old sanctions against Syria.<\/p>\n
Syria’s foreign ministry said the nearly unanimous vote “reflects the growing confidence in President al-Sharaa’s leadership” and “represents a victory for Syrian diplomacy, which has succeeded in restoring international recognition of Syria’s status and its pivotal role in the region.”<\/p>\n
Syria is expected to join the US-led anti-IS coalition during al-Sharaa’s Washington visit, which involves some 80 countries working to prevent the Jihadist group’s resurgence. <\/p>\n
The effort forms part of Trump’s strategy to rebuild Syria relations after the al-Assad family’s 50-year rule ended in a lightning offensive led by al-Sharaa, also ending nearly 14 years of civil war.<\/p>\n
Al-Sharaa has sought to restore ties with Arab countries and the West, where officials remained wary of his past al-Qaida connections. The US previously designated his former rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham as a terrorist organisation.<\/p>\n
Other Syria sanctions remain, most stringently those imposed by Congress under the 2019 Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act, requiring congressional votes for permanent removal.<\/p>\n
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s top Democrat and Republican welcomed Thursday’s UN action in a bipartisan statement, saying Congress should act to “bring the Syrian economy into the 21st century.”<\/p>\n
Additional sources \u2022 AP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Euronews Published on 07\/11\/2025 – 12:10 GMT+1 The UN Security Council voted Thursday to lift sanctions on Syria’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":120563,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5208,76681,54,42,43,4321,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-120562","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-bashar-al-assad","9":"tag-conflict-in-syria","10":"tag-donald-trump","11":"tag-headlines","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-sanctions","14":"tag-top-news","15":"tag-top-stories","16":"tag-topnews","17":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120562"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120562\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}