Trump hints at potential easing of sanctions on Syria

US President Donald Trump said Monday he was considering offering sanctions relief to Syria as it seeks to rebuild after a grinding decade-plus civil war, AFP reported. 

"We are going to have to decide on the sanctions, which we may very well relieve. We may take them off of Syria because we want to give them a fresh start," Trump told journalists at the White House before departing on a trip to the Middle East.

Syria's Islamist authorities, who toppled longtime president Bashar al-Assad in December, are working to rebuild the country's infrastructure and economy after almost 14 years of devastating conflict.

The new government has been pushing for Assad-era sanctions to be removed to revive the country's battered economy and support reconstruction.

Syria's foreign ministry welcomed Trump's remarks and said it "considers them an encouraging step towards ending the suffering of the Syrian people".

The foreign ministry statement said Assad-era sanctions "directly target the Syrian people and hinder the recovery and reconstruction process".

Syrians "look forward to the full lifting of sanctions as part of steps that support peace and prosperity in Syria and the region, and open the possibility for constructive international cooperation," the statement added.

Some countries have said they would wait to see how the new authorities exercise their power and ensure human rights are respected before lifting sanctions, opting instead for targeted and temporary exemptions.

A February United Nations Development Programme report estimated that at current growth rates, Syria would need more than 50 years to return to the economic level it had before its devastating civil war, and called for massive investment to accelerate the process.