Greece favors gradual relief of sanctions on Syria: Foreign minister

By Ahmet Gencturk

ATHENS (AA) - Greece favors relieving sanctions on Syria on a gradual basis, said Foreign Affairs Minister George Gerapetritis.

“We support that, in order for Syria to have a new prospect, we need to have a Syrian-led and Syrian-owned project of reconstruction. This is why we suggest that we need to have a relief of these sanctions,” Gerapetritis said in an interview with US broadcaster Fox News, whose highlights were released by the Greek Foreign Ministry on Tuesday.

“But that should take place mostly on a gradual basis. We need to see how it goes, and then we need to have the relief of sanctions in a reversible manner,” he added.

Commenting on Turkish-Greek relations, which saw a major thaw in the last two years, Gerapetritis said “the truth is that in the last couple of years, there have been some steps towards normalizing our relationship. We have signed an agreement concerning good neighborly relations. We have coordinated when it comes to illegal migration.”

However, he recalled that the issue of delimitation of maritime borders remains unsolved.

“We're still not there yet. Because in order to get there, we need first of all to agree on the scope. And the scope can be no other than international law,” he said.

On relations with the US, he said: “We are very like-minded with the US when it comes to foreign and security policy.”

In January, the US Treasury Department issued exemptions aimed at facilitating the entry of humanitarian aid into Syria for six months.

European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas also confirmed that EU foreign ministers had agreed on a roadmap to ease sanctions on Syria.

Syria has been under sanctions since December 1979, when the US designated it as a “state sponsor of terrorism.”

The sanctions intensified after the 2011 uprising against the Bashar al-Assad regime.

Assad, Syria’s leader for nearly 25 years, fled to Russia on Dec. 8, 2024, ending the Baath Party regime, which had been in power since 1963.

Ahmed al-Sharaa, who led anti-regime forces to oust Assad, was declared president for a transitional period on Jan. 29.