The EU has agreed to lift economic sanctions on Syria in an effort to help the war-torn country recover after the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime, writes The Guardian.

After the decision by EU foreign ministers on Tuesday, the EU`s chief diplomat, Kaja Kallas, wrote on X: "We want to help the Syrian people rebuild a new, inclusive and peaceful Syria".

The move comes one week after Donald Trump announced that all US sanctions on Syria would be lifted, after he met the Syrian president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, and told the former jihadist he had an "enormous opportunity".

Speaking before the decision was formally approved, Kallas told reporters there had been some "very intense discussions" about lifting sanctions: "There are worries about whether the [Syrian] government is going [in] the right direction. But I think we don`t have a choice. We … either give them the possibility to stabilise the country or we don`t do that", suggesting that failure to lift the sanctions could push Syria down a path similar to Afghanistan.

After the Taliban returned to power in August 2021, Afghanistan`s economy collapsed as the country’s central bank assets remained frozen, leaving ordinary people facing huge price increases for basic goods such as flour, rice and oil.

The EU decision came as the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said Syria could be weeks away from another civil war of "epic proportions", as he called for support to the transitional leadership. He told a US Senate hearing: "It is our assessment that, frankly, the transitional authority, given the challenges they`re facing, are maybe weeks – not many months – away from potential collapse and a full-scale civil war of epic proportions, basically the country splitting up".

The EU dismissed suggestions its decision was a response to US policy.