Syria announces Qatar will help pay salaries

Syrian Finance Minister, Mohammed Barnieh, announced that Qatar will assist his country in paying public sector salaries and that Washington has granted a partial exemption from sanctions against Syria to allow this funding.

Neither the Qatari government nor the U.S. Treasury has issued a statement on the matter.

"We thank the Qatari government for the generous grant to pay part of the current salaries," said Barnieh, as quoted by the official Syrian agency Sana on Wednesday evening.

The agreement is for "$29 million per month for three months" and will cover "salaries in the health, education, and social affairs sectors, as well as non-military pensions," he specified.

The operation "has been exempted from U.S. sanctions," he added, thanking the U.S. Treasury "for quickly facilitating this aid."

For months, the new Syrian authorities have been calling for the lifting of international sanctions imposed during the reign of former President Bashar al-Assad.

Barnieh expressed hope that this gesture would be "followed by other measures aimed at reducing the sanctions" affecting the Syrian economy. "We continue with reforms to strengthen trust in our financial system," he added.

Qatar is, along with Turkey, one of the main supporters of the new Islamist authorities that took power after ousting Bashar al-Assad on December 8, following nearly 14 years of civil war.

In January, a diplomatic source told AFP that Qatar was considering providing funds to the new authorities to increase public sector salaries.

Barnieh stated that "the grant would be managed by the United Nations Development Programme" and covered "about one-fifth of current salaries and pensions."

Several Western countries, notably in Europe, have eased some sanctions against Syria, while Washington has stated it will not relax them until it sees progress, particularly in the fight against "terrorism."

On Wednesday, during a visit to Paris by Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa, French President Emmanuel Macron called for the continuation of the "gradual lifting of European economic sanctions" if the new authorities stabilize the country.

Syrian Foreign Minister Assaad al-Chaibani said on X on Thursday that the visit to Paris marked a "turning point on the issue of lifting sanctions."