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The U.S. has provided Syria with a list of demands that, if met, would result in some degree of sanctions relief. In one such demand, it was specified that no foreigners should be given high-level positions in the governing body. Details were shared by six informants to Reueters.

As per the report, U.S. Under Secretary for Levant and Syrian Affairs Natasha Franceschi met the Syrian foreign minister Asaad al-Shibani face to face at the Syria donor's conference held in Brussels on March 18. It was here that she reportedly gave the list of demands to him. The informants include two U.S. officials, a Syrian source, a regional diplomat, and two Washington-based sources.

This was the first high level direct meeting between Washington and Damascus after US President Trump took office on January 20. The details of the meeting and the demands have not been reported in the past.

Reportedly, U.S. made Syria’s destruction of its remaining chemical weapon stores and anti-terrorism collaboration with other nations prerequisites for sanctions to be lifted. The American and Syrian officials that have been cited as the sources of this information have chosen to remain anonymous.

Another request was ensuring that foreign fighters are not placed in high positions of the state’s power structure. This was revealed by two American officials and a Washington source.

Syria has already placed some foreign ex-rebels, including a Jordanian, Turk, and Uyghur, into its defense ministry. This move has unnerved foreign governments.

Two American officials and Washington sources say that the U.S. also requested Syria to designate a point of contact to help in the search for Austin Tice, a journalist who has been missing in Syria over ten years.

Washington would grant some easing of the sanctions according to all six sources if Syria complied with all the demands. Those sources did not detail what relief would be provided, and told of their understanding that Washington did not give a deadline for meeting the requirements.

Neither the Foreign Ministry of Syria nor the Department of State of the U.S. would respond to the inquiries.

All these efforts to relieve sanctions come at a time when Syria desperately needs it to help revive an economy that has suffered from almost 14 years of war—for which—The United States, U.K. and Europe imposed harsh sanctions targeting individuals, companies, and entire industries to force change in the now-ejected president Bashar Assad’s regime.

Some sanctions were lifted, although not very effectively. In January, the U.S. issued a general license for six months that was supposed to facilitate the provision of humanitarian assistance. However, this was not deemed sufficient for Qatar to utilize the Syrian public sector's central bank to transfer funds meant for public sector salaries.

Other Shirqat officials like Shibani and interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa have argued that the sanctions should be completely removed because there is no fairness in maintaining these restrictions after the mid-December swift rebel advance over Assad.

U.S SYRIA POLICY IN PROGRESS ***

The fulfillment of the demands is the most overt indication so far of Trump Administration Strategy on Syria.

U.S. rhetoric has zeroed in on minority support and indignation towards Islamist violence, but has made little else known publicly while remaining vague about what the future of the sanctions would be or if U.S. troops will continue to be stationed in the Northeast region.

This is at least partially attributable to mixed sentiment in Washington about how to deal with Syria. Certain officials in the White House have been very eager to change the status quo and have pointed to the new Syrian leadership’s past associations with Al-Qaeda as justification to limit engagement, according to diplomats and U.S. sources close to the policymaking decision.

The sources said that the State Department attempted to take a more sophisticated posture with possible avenues of engagement regarding Syria.

An argument took place earlier this month between the White House and the State Department over U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s statement criticizing violence in Western Syria which has seen the death of dozens of civilians from the Alawite sect – the religious group of President Assad – after they were ensnared by armed loyalists for an ex-regime security force who were pro militant.

Rubio condemned “terrorist radical Islamists and foreign terrorist” for the violence and urged that the sponsoers of the violence need to be punished for the actions by the Syrian Structures set by opposition.

The State Department wanted a more reasonable position to be incorporated in the statement, while the White House was in favor of a stronger statement, as per sources.

A month ago, Reuters reported Israeli advocates were attempting to convince the U.S. to weaken the control and the centralization of power in Syria.

As per the sources, the Israeli effort to prevent American intervention with the new leaders of Syria is not meeting with much support from the administration, although some American government officials are starting to accept some of the Israeli worries.

 


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