The EU's 27 countries are expected to agree on Monday to easing a number of sanctions on Syria with the aim of boosting its post-Assad recovery, senior EU officials have said.
How the EU moves forward on amending its sanctions regime is being closely scrutinised after the US eased restrictions on Syria to increase humanitarian aid earlier this month. No such move has yet taken place at EU level, in large part due to a slower decision-making process that involves unanimous support from all member states. "We're talking about it," a senior diplomat said. "It's more a question of how exactly we do it. I'm pretty confident that we'll get there."
The EU issued sanctions against Syria following the Assad regime's human rights violations against its population after a 2011 peaceful uprising that morphed into civil war. The sanctions target a wide range of sectors, including finance, transport and energy, as well as members of the Assad family.
European governments say they want to support Syria and are receptive to requests made by the new authority in Damascus, Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS), to urgently lift sanctions in order to rebuild the war-torn and poverty-stricken nation. "Removing the economic sanctions is the key for stability of Syria," the country's new Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan Al Shibani said in Davos this week.
Suspension plan
In Brussels, there is a hope that a sequenced easing of sanctions would give the EU more leverage on Damascus. "Suspending the sanctions instead of completely lifting them gives us the opportunity to continue to monitor the human rights situation in the country," the senior EU diplomat said, speaking to journalists on the condition of anonymity.
In a proposal seen by The National that was sent last week to member states, the EU's diplomatic service – the European External Action Service – called for considering "the suspension of a number of economic (sectoral and individual) measures in order to send a strong political message of support to the Syrian people, while doing so in a step-by-step approach".
Time frame and scope
What this sequencing will look like will ultimately be decided by member states. "We want to give a strong political signal that sanctions will be lifted because it's time for the country to be rehabilitated, and hopefully, [there will be] reconstruction," a senior EU official said. "At the same time, there are a lot of uncertainties on the governance of Syria," they added. HTS remains listed at UN, US and EU level for its former ties with Al Qaeda.
The EU, which has established cautious relations with HTS, wants to make sure that it can reinstate sanctions if it feels that human rights violations are taking place. EU leaders have said they would pay particular attention to the inclusion of Syria's minorities in the political transition, and women's rights.
The process of reinstating sanctions at a later stage, called snapback, was described by the senior EU official as "the typical instrument [used] when you want to do something, but you are not entirely sure that the other part of the story will respond to your actions". A snapback mechanism was included in a failed 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
Some points that are still under discussion include time frame and scope. One option would be to lift all sectoral sanctions on Syria but only for a certain amount of time – probably one year. They could be reinstated with a unanimous decision if violations take place in Syria. Another option would be to ease only a limited number of sanctions and issue conditions to lift the rest. Meanwhile, there is broad consensus that sanctions on the Assad family and Syria's chemical weapons programme should remain.
Asked how long it could take for the European External Action Service to finalise the legal acts that would lift sanctions, the senior diplomat said it could take several weeks. The EEAS cannot move forward until there is full agreement among the 27 member states. In its proposal, the EEAS suggested "making the humanitarian exemption open-ended to further facilitate the provision of assistance to the Syrian civilian population".
While the EU's foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas has publicly said she would like to see Russia retreat from its military bases in Syria, diplomats noted that it was unlikely that this would be a precondition to easing sanctions. "We continue asking for the end of these military bases. They [HTS] responded that they will see that in the future," the senior EU official said.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Best Foreign Language Film nominees
Capernaum (Lebanon)
Cold War (Poland)
Never Look Away (Germany)
Roma (Mexico)
Shoplifters (Japan)
Specs
Engine: Electric motor generating 54.2kWh (Cooper SE and Aceman SE), 64.6kW (Countryman All4 SE)
Power: 218hp (Cooper and Aceman), 313hp (Countryman)
Torque: 330Nm (Cooper and Aceman), 494Nm (Countryman)
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Price: From Dh158,000 (Cooper), Dh168,000 (Aceman), Dh190,000 (Countryman)
Infiniti QX80 specs
Engine: twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter V6
Power: 450hp
Torque: 700Nm
Price: From Dh450,000, Autograph model from Dh510,000
Available: Now
Squad
Ali Kasheif, Salim Rashid, Khalifa Al Hammadi, Khalfan Mubarak, Ali Mabkhout, Omar Abdulrahman, Mohammed Al Attas, Abdullah Ramadan, Zayed Al Ameri (Al Jazira), Mohammed Al Shamsi, Hamdan Al Kamali, Mohammed Barghash, Khalil Al Hammadi (Al Wahda), Khalid Essa, Mohammed Shaker, Ahmed Barman, Bandar Al Ahbabi (Al Ain), Al Hassan Saleh, Majid Suroor (Sharjah) Walid Abbas, Ahmed Khalil (Shabab Al Ahli), Tariq Ahmed, Jasim Yaqoub (Al Nasr), Ali Saleh, Ali Salmeen (Al Wasl), Hassan Al Muharami (Baniyas)
Match info
Huddersfield Town 0
Chelsea 3
Kante (34'), Jorginho (45' pen), Pedro (80')
The five pillars of Islam
1. Fasting
2. Prayer
3. Hajj
4. Shahada
5. Zakat
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Factfile on Garbine Muguruza:
Name: Garbine Muguruza (ESP)
World ranking: 15 (will rise to 5 on Monday)
Date of birth: October 8, 1993
Place of birth: Caracas, Venezuela
Place of residence: Geneva, Switzerland
Height: 6ft (1.82m)
Career singles titles: 4
Grand Slam titles: 2 (French Open 2016, Wimbledon 2017)
Career prize money: $13,928,719
The struggle is on for active managers
David Einhorn closed out 2018 with his biggest annual loss ever for the 22-year-old Greenlight Capital.
The firm’s main hedge fund fell 9 per cent in December, extending this year’s decline to 34 percent, according to an investor update viewed by Bloomberg.
Greenlight posted some of the industry’s best returns in its early years, but has stumbled since losing more than 20 per cent in 2015.
Other value-investing managers have also struggled, as a decade of historically low interest rates and the rise of passive investing and quant trading pushed growth stocks past their inexpensive brethren. Three Bays Capital and SPO Partners & Co., which sought to make wagers on undervalued stocks, closed in 2018. Mr Einhorn has repeatedly expressed his frustration with the poor performance this year, while remaining steadfast in his commitment to value investing.
Greenlight, which posted gains only in May and October, underperformed both the broader market and its peers in 2018. The S&P 500 Index dropped 4.4 per cent, including dividends, while the HFRX Global Hedge Fund Index, an early indicator of industry performance, fell 7 per cent through December. 28.
At the start of the year, Greenlight managed $6.3 billion in assets, according to a regulatory filing. By May, the firm was down to $5.5bn.
Score
Third Test, Day 2
New Zealand 274
Pakistan 139-3 (61 ov)
Pakistan trail by 135 runs with 7 wickets remaining in the innings
Red flags
- Promises of high, fixed or 'guaranteed' returns.
- Unregulated structured products or complex investments often used to bypass traditional safeguards.
- Lack of clear information, vague language, no access to audited financials.
- Overseas companies targeting investors in other jurisdictions - this can make legal recovery difficult.
- Hard-selling tactics - creating urgency, offering 'exclusive' deals.
Courtesy: Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
The candidates
Dr Ayham Ammora, scientist and business executive
Ali Azeem, business leader
Tony Booth, professor of education
Lord Browne, former BP chief executive
Dr Mohamed El-Erian, economist
Professor Wyn Evans, astrophysicist
Dr Mark Mann, scientist
Gina MIller, anti-Brexit campaigner
Lord Smith, former Cabinet minister
Sandi Toksvig, broadcaster
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
More from Rashmee Roshan Lall
VERSTAPPEN'S FIRSTS
Youngest F1 driver (17 years 3 days Japan 2014)
Youngest driver to start an F1 race (17 years 166 days – Australia 2015)
Youngest F1 driver to score points (17 years 180 days - Malaysia 2015)
Youngest driver to lead an F1 race (18 years 228 days – Spain 2016)
Youngest driver to set an F1 fastest lap (19 years 44 days – Brazil 2016)
Youngest on F1 podium finish (18 years 228 days – Spain 2016)
Youngest F1 winner (18 years 228 days – Spain 2016)
Youngest multiple F1 race winner (Mexico 2017/18)
Youngest F1 driver to win the same race (Mexico 2017/18)
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The specs: 2018 Audi RS5
Price, base: Dh359,200
Engine: 2.9L twin-turbo V6
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Power: 450hp at 5,700rpm
Torque: 600Nm at 1,900rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 8.7L / 100km
The biog:
From: Wimbledon, London, UK
Education: Medical doctor
Hobbies: Travelling, meeting new people and cultures
Favourite animals: All of them
Our legal consultants
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Six large-scale objects on show
- Concrete wall and windows from the now demolished Robin Hood Gardens housing estate in Poplar
- The 17th Century Agra Colonnade, from the bathhouse of the fort of Agra in India
- A stagecloth for The Ballet Russes that is 10m high – the largest Picasso in the world
- Frank Lloyd Wright’s 1930s Kaufmann Office
- A full-scale Frankfurt Kitchen designed by Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, which transformed kitchen design in the 20th century
- Torrijos Palace dome
