DOHA: Qatar is weighing a plan to provide Syria’s new rulers with funds to increase public sector salaries, a diplomatic source said Thursday, as the interim government in Damascus seeks to rebuild state institutions.
“Discussions are taking place, but an agreement is yet to be concluded,” the source told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of talks.
A decision this week by the United States to temporary lift some sanctions imposed on Syria under Bashar al-Assad, who was toppled by forces last month, has enabled the possibility of foreign funding.
Beyond direct contact with the authorities in Syria, Qatar was “coordinating with allies and partners” on the matter, said the diplomatic source.
Unlike other Arab countries, Qatar never restored diplomatic ties with Syria under Assad and was one of the main backers of the armed rebellion that erupted after his government crushed a peaceful uprising in 2011.
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Following the fall of the Assad government, capping more than 13 years of civil war, Washington announced on Monday it was providing sanctions relief on some activities in Syria for the next six months to ease access to basic services.
Syria’s national electricity company announced on Tuesday that Qatar and Turkey were to send two power ships to increase supply, another move made possible by the US decision.
Ministers from Syria’s transitional government including top diplomat Asaad al-Shaibani met with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani in Doha on Sunday, their first visit to Qatar since toppling Assad.
During the trip, Shaibani criticised international sanctions against Syria, calling them a “barrier and an obstacle to the rapid recovery”.
Qatar was the second country, after Turkey, to reopen its embassy in the Syrian capital following the overthrow of Assad.
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