UNSC lifts sanctions on Syrian president al-Sharaa

KABUL (Pajhwok): The United Nations Security Council has removed sanctions on Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who is due to meet US President Donald Trump at the White House on Monday.

The US-drafted resolution on Thursday also lifted sanctions on Syrian Interior Minister Anas Khattab. It received 14 votes in favor, while China abstained.

Washington has been urging the 15-member Security Council for months to ease Syria sanctions. Trump announced a major US policy shift in May when he said he would lift US sanctions on Syria.

“I think he’s doing a very good job,” Trump said later on Thursday of Sharaa. “It’s a tough neighborhood, and he’s a tough guy, but I got along with him very well. And a lot of progress has been made with Syria.”

“We did take the sanctions off Syria in order to give them a fighting shot,” he told reporters in Washington.

After 13 years of civil war, Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad was ousted in December in a lightning offensive by insurgent forces led by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).

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