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-Shibani 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-Shibani, 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-Shibani 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 on to China.

Read more: Beyond Sanctions: New chapter for Syria, new opportunities for Iraq