Syria’s Neighboring Foreign Ministers Call for Lifting Sanctions and Reconciliation 

This handout picture released by Jordan's Foreign Ministry shows (front L to R) Syria's interim Foreign Minister Asaad Shaibani, Iraq's Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein, Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, Türkiye's Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, and Lebanon's Foreign Minister Youssef Rajji posing for a family photo during the Syria and Neighboring Countries meeting in Amman on March 9, 2025. (Jordanian Foreign Ministry / AFP)
This handout picture released by Jordan's Foreign Ministry shows (front L to R) Syria's interim Foreign Minister Asaad Shaibani, Iraq's Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein, Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, Türkiye's Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, and Lebanon's Foreign Minister Youssef Rajji posing for a family photo during the Syria and Neighboring Countries meeting in Amman on March 9, 2025. (Jordanian Foreign Ministry / AFP)
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Syria’s Neighboring Foreign Ministers Call for Lifting Sanctions and Reconciliation 

This handout picture released by Jordan's Foreign Ministry shows (front L to R) Syria's interim Foreign Minister Asaad Shaibani, Iraq's Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein, Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, Türkiye's Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, and Lebanon's Foreign Minister Youssef Rajji posing for a family photo during the Syria and Neighboring Countries meeting in Amman on March 9, 2025. (Jordanian Foreign Ministry / AFP)
This handout picture released by Jordan's Foreign Ministry shows (front L to R) Syria's interim Foreign Minister Asaad Shaibani, Iraq's Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein, Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, Türkiye's Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, and Lebanon's Foreign Minister Youssef Rajji posing for a family photo during the Syria and Neighboring Countries meeting in Amman on March 9, 2025. (Jordanian Foreign Ministry / AFP)

Syria's top diplomat and his counterparts from neighboring countries Sunday called for the lifting of Western-led sanctions on Syria and post-war reconciliation.

The foreign ministers of Türkiye, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon made their remarks alongside Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shibani following a meeting in the Jordanian capital Amman.

They come following days of clashes between Syrian security forces and loyalists to ousted President Bashar al-Assad in Syria's coastal province. Some rights groups say hundreds of civilians, mostly Alawite, were killed in revenge attacks after the fighting broke out. The Associated Press could not independently verify those numbers.

The United States and Europe have been hesitant to lift sanctions on Syria before there is a clear political transition that is democratic and inclusive of Syria’s minorities and civil society. At the same time, the country desperately needs money to rebuild after years of war and pull millions out of poverty. The United Nations estimates that some 90% of Syria’s population lives in poverty.

“We are protecting all components of the Syrian people, and we do not discriminate between them. We will not allow the repetition of the tragedies of the Syrian people,” said al-Shibani.

Syria's new authorities under interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa have struggled to convince the United States and Europe to lift sanctions to start rebuilding the country after 13 years of war and reconcile with the Kurds in the northeast and Druze in the south to exert state authority across the country.

The weekend's violence appears likely to stymie attempts to remove sanctions in the immediate future. The US and UN released statements condemning the killing of civilians, which US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called for Damascus to hold the perpetrators accountable.

Also on Sunday, al-Sharaa announced the formation of a committee tasked with investigating the violence in coastal communities, including “violations against civilians” and another one tasked with “maintaining civil peace.”

Al-Sharaa said in a video statement that the outbreak of violence was part of “attempts by remnants of the former regime, with foreign parties behind them, to create new strife and drag our country to a civil war, with the goal of dividing it and destroying its unity and stability.”

He said the country’s new authorities “will not tolerate the remnants of Assad who committed crimes against our army forces and state institutions” and promised to “hold accountable with all firmness and without leniency anyone who was involved in the blood of civilians or harmed our people.”

It remained to be seen whether those measures will succeed in calming the situation and reassuring both Syrians and the international community.

Syria's neighbors fear that the country's pulverized economy and internal tensions could impact their own stability.

“Stability in Syria requires dialogue with the country's various components,” said Iraqi Foreign Minister Fouad Hussein at a joint news conference.

The foreign ministers were critical of what they said was foreign intervention in the region after Israeli troops conducted military operations in southern Syria and seized a UN buffer zone that divides Syria from the Golan Heights, which Israel seized and annexed in 1967. On Sunday, the Israeli commanding officers visited and assessed the buffer zone.

Turkish Foreign Minister Fidan welcomed the “historic” meeting and called for cooperation to decrease tension in Syria, and said he alongside others will work against sleeper cells belonging to the extremist ISISI group and affiliates of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party in Syria and Iraq.

“This is a regional problem. Regardless of our ideals we should all combat ISIS as well as the PKK, they are both terrorist entities,” he added.

Iraq's foreign minister warned that ISIS sleeper cells are growing in numbers.

“We need to take the initiative first in exchanging views and information about (the ISIS group's) latest operations and especially their expansion not only on the Syrian borders with Iraq and Jordan but also their expansion in the Syrian land,” said Hussein.



Israeli Airstrike Kills Three in Gaza

FILE PHOTO: A Palestinian man walks near rubble of houses destroyed during the Israeli offensive, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, March 13, 2025. REUTERS/Hatem Khaled/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A Palestinian man walks near rubble of houses destroyed during the Israeli offensive, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, March 13, 2025. REUTERS/Hatem Khaled/File Photo
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Israeli Airstrike Kills Three in Gaza

FILE PHOTO: A Palestinian man walks near rubble of houses destroyed during the Israeli offensive, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, March 13, 2025. REUTERS/Hatem Khaled/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A Palestinian man walks near rubble of houses destroyed during the Israeli offensive, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, March 13, 2025. REUTERS/Hatem Khaled/File Photo

An Israeli airstrike killed three Palestinian men in the Gaza Strip, medics said on Monday, and there was no sign of progress at renewed ceasefire talks.
Medics said the three men were killed near Bureij camp in the center of the devastated Palestinian enclave by a missile fired from a drone. According to Reuters, Israel's military did not immediately comment.
In Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, medics said three people were wounded in another airstrike. Rafah residents have reported frequent fire by Israeli forces deployed in areas adjacent to the border inside the city boundaries.
The persistent bloodshed underscores the fragility of a three-stage ceasefire agreement between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas mediated by Qatar, Egypt, and the United States.
Israel wants to extend the ceasefire's first phase, a proposal backed by US envoy Steve Witkoff. Hamas says it will resume freeing hostages only under the second phase that was due to begin on March 2.
"Hamas has complied fully with the agreement, while the occupation (Israel) didn't comply with some clauses. It (Israel) seeks to foil the agreement and impose new conditions," Hamas spokesperson Abdel-Latif Al-Qanoua said on Monday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said on Saturday negotiators had been instructed to be ready to continue talks based on the mediators' response to a US proposal for the release of 11 living hostages and half of the dead captives.
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release American-Israeli soldier Edan Alexander and four bodies of the hostages if Israel agreed to begin talks immediately on implementing the second phase of the agreement. Israel accused Hamas of waging "psychological warfare" on the families of hostages.