France's Macron wants EU to end Syrian sanctions

By John Irish and Sudip Kar-Gupta

PARIS (Reuters) -France's president said on Wednesday he would urge the EU to end sanctions on Syria when they come up for renewal in June and lobby the U.S. to follow suit as well as keep its troops there to ensure Syria's stability.

Speaking alongside Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who was in Paris for his first trip to Europe since the overthrow of former President Bashar al-Assad in December, Emmanuel Macron said it was the international community's duty to ease Syria's economic plight.

"I told the president that if he continues on his path, we would do the same. Namely by first progressively lifting European sanctions, and then we would also lobby our American partners to follow suit on this matter," Macron said.

He later added that he would propose EU sanctions be allowed to expire on June 1.

With the World Bank estimating Syria's reconstruction costs at more than $250 billion, Sharaa wants sanctions relief to kickstart an economy battered by 14 years of civil war. During that period, the U.S., European Union and Britain imposed tough sanctions on the Assad government.

The EU has lifted some sanctions, while some others that target individuals and entities are due to expire next month.

Renewing those would require consensus among the 27 member states, although the bloc could opt for a limited renewal or exempt the Central Bank or other entities critical to economic recovery.

"Sanctions are an obstacle we discussed at length. I explained all the consequences and impact and said the sanctions were imposed on previous regime and nothing justifies the sanctions being maintained,” Sharaa said.

Sharaa received a U.N. exemption to travel to Paris as he remains on a terrorism sanctions list for his previous leadership of Islamist armed group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a former al Qaeda affiliate.

The two leaders discussed how to ensure Syria's sovereignty and security, treatment of minorities after recent attacks on Alawites and Druze, efforts against Islamic State militants and coordination of aid and economic support, French officials said.

The visit marked a diplomatic boost for Sharaa from a Western power at a time when the United States has said it does not recognise any entity as the government of Syria.

Reuters reported in April that Syria had responded to a U.S. list of conditions for potential partial sanctions relief after Washington in January issued a six-month exemption for some sanctions to encourage aid to Syria.

In exchange for fulfilling all U.S. demands, Washington would extend the suspension for two years and possibly issue another exemption, sources told Reuters in March.

Over the past months, France acted as an intermediary between Sharaa and the Kurds as sources said the U.S. would reduce its 2,000 troops in Syria by half over the coming months.

Paris has been holding talks with the U.S. on how to handle Washington's withdrawal and how France could play a bigger role. Macron said he was trying to convince the U.S. to lift sanctions and delay withdrawing troops as that could destabilise Syria in this transitional period.

France welcomed Assad's fall and has increasingly fostered ties with Sharaa's transitional authorities. France last month appointed a charge d'affaires in Damascus with a small team of diplomats as a step towards fully reopening its embassy.

(Reporting by John Irish; Editing by Gareth Jones, Alex Richardson and Cynthia Osterman)