Syria: West should lift sanctions to help refugees return
Syria's UN ambassador on Thursday urged Western powers to lift crippling economic sanctions against the war-torn country if they are serious about helping millions of Syrian refugees to return to their homeland.
Bashar Ja'afari spoke in the Kazakh capital of Astana where Russia, Turkey and Iran are holding talks with the Syrian government and the opposition. The mediators are speaking separately to the warring sides, which are not meeting face-to-face.
Nearly 6 million Syrians have fled the civil war, now in its eighth year, to neighboring countries and Europe. Syria and Russia, one of its main backers, insist that the refugees can safety return home now while many Syrians fear that they will face persecution.
Ja'afari said that lifting the sanctions imposed on Syria would be "the real test" for the West.
"If the west wants to really help us and the countries who are hosting refugees, they must start by lifting the economic sanctions," he said. "So that these people who are abroad can return to their jobs, resume normal life and find work opportunity and are able to contribute to revitalizing the economy in Syria."
