International US, UAE discussed lifting Assad sanctions to isolate Iran

[LeonardoBjj]

The US and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) discussed the possibility of lifting sanctions on Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad if he peels himself away from Iran and cuts off weapons routes to Lebanon’s Hezbollah, five people familiar with the matter said according to Reuters.

The conversations intensified in recent months, the sources said, driven by the possible expiry on 20 December of sweeping US sanctions on Syria and by Israel’s campaign against Tehran’s regional network, including Hezbollah in Lebanon and Iranian assets in Syria.

The discussions took place before anti-Assad rebels swept into Aleppo last week in their biggest offensive in Syria for years.

According to the sources, the new rebel advance is a signal of precisely the sort of weakness in Assad’s alliance with Iran that the Emirati and US initiative aims to exploit. But if Al-Assad embraces Iranian help for a counter-offensive, that could also complicate efforts to drive a wedge between them, the sources said.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi visited Syria yesterday in a show of support for Al-Assad, and UAE President Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan spoke to Al-Assad by phone about the latest developments at the weekend.

Two US sources, four Syrian and Lebanese interlocutors and two foreign diplomats told Reuters that the US and UAE see a window to drive a wedge between Al-Assad and Iran, which helped him recapture swathes of his country during the civil war that erupted in 2011.

Syria’s government and the White House did not respond to questions from Reuters. The UAE referred to its statement on Bin Zayed’s call with Al-Assad.

The UAE has taken a leading role in rehabilitating Al-Assad among the mainly Sunni Muslim Arab states that shunned him after he accepted help from Shia, non-Arab Iran to put down the Sunni-led rebellion against him.

The Emirates hosted Al-Assad in 2022, his first visit to an Arab country since the start of the war, before the Arab League reinstated Syria’s membership.

The UAE has long hoped to distance Al-Assad from Iran and wants to build business ties with Syria, but US sanctions have hampered those efforts, the sources said.

A senior regional diplomat briefed by Tehran said Iran had been informed “about behind-the-scenes efforts by some Arab countries to isolate Iran… by distancing Syria from Tehran.”

The diplomat said those efforts were linked to offers of possible sanctions relief by Washington.

The US placed sanctions on Syria after Al-Assad cracked down against protests against him in 2011, and the sanctions were repeatedly tightened in the years of war that followed. The toughest, known as the Caesar Act, passed Congress in 2019. The sanctions apply across Syrian business sectors, to anyone dealing with Syria regardless of nationality and to those dealing with Russian and Iranian entities in Syria.

Al-Assad said they amounted to economic warfare, blaming them for the Syrian currency’s collapse and drop in living standards.

The sanctions will “sunset” – or expire – on 20 December unless renewed by US lawmakers.

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20241202-us-uae-discussed-lifting-assad-sanctions-to-isolate-iran/

 

[Yehudim]

don’t expect it because Assad might find a knife in his throat

 

[no fat chicks]

Delete

 

[Seano]

A new low every day with these guys. I would love to see trump and Vance grill Putin like they did zelenski

 

[Dalarna3]

Did they lift sanctions or nah?

 

[no fat chicks]

Wrong thread

 

[LeonardoBjj]

Syria vows to destroy chemical weapons stockpile left by Assad regime​

Foreign minister says country needs international help to dismantle programme and ensure Syria becomes ‘aligned with international norms’

Syria’s foreign minister has vowed to swiftly rid the country of the chemical weapons remaining after the downfall of Bashar al-Assad’s government, and he appealed to the international community for help.

Asaad Hassan al-Shaibani spoke during closed-door meetings at the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague, where he became the first Syrian foreign minister to address the disarmament agency.


Following a sarin gas attack that killed hundreds of people in 2013, Assad-led Syria joined the agency under a US-Russian deal and 1,300 metric tonnes of chemical weapons and precursors were destroyed.

But three inquiries – by a joint UN-OPCW mechanism, the OPCW’s investigation and identification team, and a UN war crimes investigation – concluded that Syrian government forces under Assad used the nerve agent sarin and chlorine barrel bombs in attacks during the civil war that killed or injured thousands.


As part of its membership, Damascus was supposed to undergo inspections, but for more than a decade the OPCW was prevented from uncovering the true scale of its chemical weapons programme.

“Syria is ready … to solve this decades-old problem imposed on us by a previous regime,” al-Shaibani told delegates.

“The legal obligations resulting from breaches are ones we inherited, not created. Nevertheless, our commitment is to dismantle whatever may be left from it, to put an end to this painful legacy and ensure Syria becomes a nation aligned with international norms.”

Earlier on Wednesday, the OPCW chief, Fernando Arias, called Syria’s political shift “a new and historic opportunity to obtain clarifications on the full extent and scope of the Syrian chemical weapons programme”.

Shaibani said planning had begun, but that the help of the international community would be critical. Syria would require technical assistance, logistical assistance, capacity building, resources and expertise on the ground, he said.

“Although the Assad regime stalled for many years, we understand the need to act quickly, but we also understand that this needs to be done thoroughly. For that, we cannot succeed alone,” he said.

Syria’s declared stockpile has never accurately reflected the situation on the ground, OPCW inspectors have concluded. They now want to visit roughly 100 sites that may have been tied to Assad’s decades-old chemical weapons programme.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...emical-weapons-stockpile-left-by-assad-regime