The measure removed the penalties imposed on the country, including its financial system, and kept members of former President Bashar al-Assad’s family on the sanctions list.

The bloc also imposed new sanctions on Muhammad Hussein al-Jasim, leader of the Sultan Sulaiman Shah Brigade, and Sayf Boulad Abu Bakr, leader of the Hamza Division, both armed groups. According to the EU, they were involved in attacks that claimed the lives of at least 1,800 civilians on the Syrian coast.

EU Foreign Policy Chief, Kaja Kallas, commented last week that the removal of sanctions “is simply the right thing to do, at this historic moment, for the EU to support Syria’s recovery and a political transition that meets all Syrians’ aspirations.”

The lifting of the broader sanctions on Syria came a few days after the United States granted broad waivers in a first step toward fulfilling President Donald Trump’s pledge to lift a half-century of penalties off a country shattered by 13 years of civil war.

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