UK foreign secretary visits Syria after easing sanctions

British Foreign Secretary David Lammy has met Syria’s interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa in Damascus to discuss boosting cooperation

DAMASCUS, Syria -- British Foreign Secretary David Lammy met in Damascus on Saturday with Syria’s interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa to discuss boosting cooperation, after the U.K. began lifting sanctions against Syria.

Syria has been improving relations with Western countries following the fall of President Bashar Assad in December in an offensive led by al-Sharaa’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham Islamist group.

Al-Sharaa’s office said Lammy and the president discussed mutual relations and ways of boosting cooperation and the latest regional and international developments. Lammy later met his Syrian counterpart, Asaad al-Shibani, state media reported.

In April, the British government lifted sanctions against a dozen Syrian entities, including government departments and media outlets, to help the country rebuild after Assad's ouster. Weeks earlier the U.K. had dropped sanctions against two dozen Syrian businesses, mostly banks and oil companies.

Earlier this week, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order ending many American economic sanctions on Syria, following through on a promise he made to al-Sharaa.

Syria’s new leaders have been struggling to rebuild the country’s decimated economy and infrastructure after nearly 14 years of civil war that has killed half a million people. In recent months, al-Sharaa visited oil-rich regional countries and France in May in his first visit to the Europe Union.