After Assad's fall

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Interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa and his rebel movement have made Syria internationally more respectable again.(Bild: APA/AFP/Syria‘s Transitional Government)

While the EU has already issued the 16th package of sanctions against Russia due to the invasion of Ukraine, punitive measures against Syria have been partially suspended following the fall of the Assad regime. These affect the energy and transport sectors and the banking sector. However, personal sanctions against the family and close associates of former ruler Bashar al-Assad are not to be suspended.

In addition to the suspension of sectoral measures in the areas of energy (including oil, gas and electricity) and transport, the frozen funds of five companies are to be released. Four banks, the Syrian Central Bank and the state-owned airline Syrian Arab Airlines will be removed from the sanctions list, as will the ban on exports of luxury goods to Syria. The humanitarian exemptions already in force will be extended indefinitely.

The Syrian Central Bank will also be removed from the sanctions list.(Bild: APA/AFP/LOUAI BESHARA)

The sanctions against those responsible for the Assad regime and against arms and drug trafficking remain in place. However, the remaining ones can also be reactivated at any time should the situation deteriorate again, as EU foreign affairs representative Kaja Kallas emphasized.

UN: Reconstruction will take decades
The sanctions were imposed against the regime of the former long-term ruler. The EU held it "responsible for the violent repression of the Syrian civilian population". The fall of the Assad regime marked "the beginning of a new era of hope for the Syrian people", Brussels said. Following the fall of Assad in December 2024, Ahmed al-Sharaa, the head of the Islamist HTS militia, was appointed interim president at the end of January. The United Nations declared on Thursday that, at current growth rates, the Syrian economy would need more than 50 years to return to its level before the start of the civil war.