Report: US Gave Syria List of Conditions for Partial Sanctions Relief 

Supporters of Syria's new government gather after the prayer in Umayyad square in Damascus, Syria, Friday March 14, 2025.(AP)
Supporters of Syria's new government gather after the prayer in Umayyad square in Damascus, Syria, Friday March 14, 2025.(AP)
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Report: US Gave Syria List of Conditions for Partial Sanctions Relief 

Supporters of Syria's new government gather after the prayer in Umayyad square in Damascus, Syria, Friday March 14, 2025.(AP)
Supporters of Syria's new government gather after the prayer in Umayyad square in Damascus, Syria, Friday March 14, 2025.(AP)

The United States has handed Syria a list of conditions that it wants Damascus to fulfill in exchange for partial sanctions relief, six people familiar with the matter told Reuters, including ensuring foreigners are not in senior governing roles.

US Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Levant and Syria Natasha Franceschi gave the list of demands to Syrian foreign minister Asaad al-Shaibani at an in-person meeting on the sidelines of a Syria donor conference in Brussels on March 18, according to two of the people - a US official and a Syrian source familiar with the matter.

Reuters was first to report both the list and the in-person meeting, the first high-level direct contact between Damascus and Washington since US President Donald Trump took office on Jan. 20, has been previously reported.

Reuters spoke to six sources for this story, including two US officials, a Syrian source, a regional diplomat and two sources in Washington familiar with the matter. They all requested anonymity to discuss the high-level diplomacy.

Among the conditions placed by the United States are Syria's destruction of any remaining chemical weapons stores and cooperation on counter-terrorism, the two US officials, the Syrian source and both sources in Washington said.

Another demand was making sure foreign fighters are not installed in senior roles in Syria's governing structure, the US officials and one of the sources in Washington said.

Syria has already appointed some foreign ex-fighters, including Uyghurs, a Jordanian and a Turk, to its defense ministry - a move that alarmed foreign governments.

Washington also asked Syria to appoint a liaison to assist US efforts to find Austin Tice, the US journalist who went missing in Syria over a decade ago, according to the two US officials and both sources in Washington.

In return for fulfilling all the demands, Washington would provide some sanctions relief, all six sources said. One specific action would be a two-year extension of an existing exemption for transactions with Syrian governing institutions and possibly the issuance of another exemption.

The US would also issue a statement supporting Syria's territorial integrity, the source said.

Washington did not provide a specific timeline for the conditions to be fulfilled.

Syria's foreign ministry did not respond to requests for comments. A spokesperson for the State Department said the agency does not "discuss our private diplomatic conversations publicly." Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce last week said Washington was monitoring the actions of the interim rulers.

Syria is in desperate need of sanctions relief to kickstart an economy collapsed by nearly 14 years of war, during which the United States, the UK and Europe placed tough sanctions on people, businesses and whole sectors of Syria's economy in a bid to squeeze now-ousted leader Bashar al-Assad.

Some of those sanctions have been temporarily suspended, with limited effect. The US issued a six-month general license in January to ease the flow of humanitarian aid, but the move was not considered enough to allow Qatar to pay for public sector salaries through Syria's central bank.

Syrian officials including Shaibani and interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa have called for sanctions to be fully lifted, saying it is unjust to keep them in place following Assad's toppling by a lightning opposition offensive in December.

US SYRIA POLICY IN PROGRESS

The delivery of the demands is the clearest signal yet of the Trump administration's policy on Syria.

US statements have focused on support for minorities and condemnations of extremism but they have otherwise said little, leaving uncertainty over the future of sanctions and whether US forces will remain deployed in the northeast.

That is in part due to differing views in Washington on how to approach Syria. Some White House officials have been keen to take a more hardline stance, pointing to the new Syrian leadership's former ties to Al-Qaeda as reason to keep engagement to a minimum, according to diplomats and US sources familiar with the policymaking process.

The State Department has sought a more nuanced approach to Syria, including possible areas of engagement, the sources added.

The differences led earlier this month to a heated deliberation between the White House and State Department on US Secretary of State Marco Rubio's statement denouncing violence in western Syria, where hundreds of civilians from the Alawite minority - Assad's sect - were killed after an ambush on new security forces by armed loyalists to the former regime.

Rubio condemned "radical terrorists" that carried out the violence, and called for Syria's interim authorities to hold perpetrators accountable.

The White House sought a more harshly worded statement while the State Department pushed back to add more balance, sources familiar with the process said. Reuters reported last month that Israel was lobbying the United States to keep Syria weak and decentralized.

The administration is still not fully subscribing to Israel's effort to discourage US engagement with Syria's new rulers, sources said, but some of the Israeli concerns are gaining more traction with some US officials.



‘Blink of an Eye’: Survivor Tells of Bangkok Skyscraper Collapse Horror

 Rescuers spray water to reduce dust in Bangkok, Thailand, Saturday, March 29, 2025, while searching for victims at the site of a high-rise building under construction that collapsed after Friday's earthquake. (AP)
Rescuers spray water to reduce dust in Bangkok, Thailand, Saturday, March 29, 2025, while searching for victims at the site of a high-rise building under construction that collapsed after Friday's earthquake. (AP)
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‘Blink of an Eye’: Survivor Tells of Bangkok Skyscraper Collapse Horror

 Rescuers spray water to reduce dust in Bangkok, Thailand, Saturday, March 29, 2025, while searching for victims at the site of a high-rise building under construction that collapsed after Friday's earthquake. (AP)
Rescuers spray water to reduce dust in Bangkok, Thailand, Saturday, March 29, 2025, while searching for victims at the site of a high-rise building under construction that collapsed after Friday's earthquake. (AP)

A construction worker told Saturday how he cheated death when a Bangkok skyscraper collapsed "in the blink of an eye" after a massive earthquake hit Myanmar and Thailand.

Tearful family members gathered at the remains of the 30-storey building, which crumbled to rubble in just seconds on Friday, clinging to shreds of hope that their loved ones who were working when it fell might be found alive.

The tower was being built to house government offices when the quake struck, and construction worker Khin Aung told AFP how the building collapsed just after his brother had entered to start his shift.

"When my shift ended around 1:00 pm I went outside to get water and I saw my younger brother before I went out," he told AFP.

Tremors from the 7.7-magnitude quake centered in neighboring Myanmar -- where the ruling junta said at least 694 people had died -- hit Bangkok around 1:20 pm (0620 GMT), shaking the building.

"When I went outside, I saw dust everywhere and I just ran to escape from the collapsing building," Khin Aung said.

"I video-called my brother and friends but only one picked up the phone. But I can't see his face and I heard he was running.

"At that point the whole building was shaking but while I was on a call with him, I lost the call and the building collapsed."

Authorities say up to 100 workers may be trapped in the mass of rubble and twisted metal that is all that remains of the tower. At least five are confirmed dead but the toll is almost certain to rise.

"I can't describe how I feel -- it happened in the blink of an eye," said Khin Aung.

"All my friends and my brother were in the building when it collapsed. I don't have any words to say."

- Desperate relatives -

Bangkok's skyline is ever-changing, with buildings constantly torn down and shiny new skyscrapers thrown up.

The ceaseless reinvention is powered by an army of laborers, a huge proportion of whom are drawn from Myanmar by the prospect of regular work, a peaceful country and better wages than at home.

Many relatives of workers from Myanmar gathered at the site on Saturday hoping for news of the missing.

Khin Aung and his brother -- married with two children -- have been working in Bangkok for six months.

"I heard they sent 20 workers to hospital, but I don't know who are they and my friends and brother are among them," he said.

"I hope my brother and friends are in hospital. If they are at the hospital, I have hope. If they are under this building, there is no hope for them to survive."

Thai woman Chanpen Kaewnoi, 39, waited anxiously for news of her mother and sister, who were in the building when it went down.

"My colleague called and said she couldn't find my mum or my sister. I thought mum might have slipped and maybe my sister stayed to help her," she told AFP.

"I want to see them, I hope I can find them. I hope they will not be lost. I still have hope, 50 percent."

As distraught families waited for news, rescue workers pressed on with the delicate task of searching the ruins without triggering further collapses.