The Biden administration plans to announce Monday that it will ease restrictions on humanitarian aid for Syria, speeding delivery of basic supplies without lifting sanctions that restrict other assistance to the new government in Damascus, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.
The step, approved by the administration over the weekend, authorizes the Treasury Department to issue waivers to aid groups and companies providing essentials such as water, electricity and other humanitarian supplies, the WSJ reported citing officials.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will meet his European counterparts Thursday in Rome on Syria, as the West looks to engage the new Islamist-led leadership. The State Department did not immediately specify the participants.
Blinken, on a trip that will also take him to Japan and France, will later join President Joe Biden as he pays a farewell visit to Rome that includes an audience with Pope Francis.
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German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, Ahmed al-Sharaa, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot
(Photo: Reuters)
Islamist-led forces toppled longtime ruler Bashar Assad in a lightning offensive last month after 13 years of brutal war.
Western powers have since been cautiously hoping for greater stability in Syria, a decade after the war triggered a major refugee crisis that shook up European politics.
The French and German foreign ministers on Friday visited Syria, although the trip was overshadowed when new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa shook the hand only of France's Jean-Noel Barrot, a man, and not Germany's Annalena Baerbock, a woman.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock in Syria
Senior U.S. diplomat Barbara Leaf met Sharaa last month and said that the United States was lifting a bounty that has been on its head.
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She also welcomed "positive messages" he has made, including on protection of minorities, and said he had promised that Syria would not pose a threat to neighboring countries, as Israel pounds Syrian military sites.