Denmark seeks sanctions relief to invest in Syria

Shafaq News – Damascus / Copenhagen

Denmark has called for lifting sanctions on Syria to enable Danish
companies to invest and to allow Copenhagen to appoint an ambassador in
Damascus, Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said on Saturday.

Speaking at a press conference with Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad
al-Shaibani at Tishreen Palace, attended by Shafaq News’ correspondent,
Rasmussen said Denmark is shifting from a phase of partnership to one of full
support for Syria. The aid currently offered, he noted, is set to increase.

“Many Syrian refugees wish to return once conditions permit,” Rasmussen
added. According to Refugees Welcome, an organization offering free legal
assistance to asylum seekers in Denmark, the country hosts around 35,000 Syrian
immigrants—most of them refugees—and 10,000 descendants, with 78 percent of
those children aged 0 to 9.

Al-Shaibani, meanwhile, said Copenhagen has become an “essential
partner” in Syria’s new state-building phase, confirming that talks concluded
with an agreement to establish a Syrian-Danish Business Council to boost
economic cooperation.

Diplomatic relations between the two countries were suspended in 2006
after demonstrators torched the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus
following the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad by Denmark’s
Jyllands-Posten newspaper, an act widely regarded as insulting to Muslims.

The Danish call for sanctions relief comes as Syria seeks broader
international backing for reconstruction. Al-Shaibani has made a string of
high-level visits in November alone—from the White House in Washington to the
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office in London, and China.