EU agrees roadmap to ease Syria sanctions in wake of Assad’s downfall

European Union foreign ministers on Monday agreed to begin lifting sanctions on Syria while insisting that the measures should be reimposed if they see any abuses by the country’s new rulers.

The EU started to impose asset freezes and travel bans on Syrian officials and organizations in 2011 in response to Bashar Assad’s crackdown on



protesters, which festered into a civil war.

The 27-nation bloc targeted 316 people and 86 entities accused of backing Syria’s former ruler. It is keen to lift those measures if Syria’s new leaders set the country on the path to a peaceful political future involving all minority groups and in which extremism and former allies Russia and Iran have no place.