EU foreign ministers on Monday agreed to begin easing sanctions on Syria after the ouster of Bashar al-Assad in December, the bloc's top diplomat said.
"While we aim to move fast, the lifting of sanctions can be reversed if wrong steps are taken," foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas wrote on social media platform X on Monday.
The 27-nation EU imposed wide-ranging sanctions on the Assad government and Syria's economy during its civil war.
Brussels says it is now willing to ease sanctions on the expectation the new authorities make good on commitments to form an inclusive transition.
The aim is to help the reconstruction of the war-ravaged country and build bridges with its new leadership after the end of the Assad family's five-decade rule.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said the EU could start by suspending sanctions on the energy, transport and banking sectors that are key to the financial stabilisation of the country.
Syria FM says scrapping sanctions 'key' to country's stability
Suspension not removal
Some EU countries worry about moving too fast to embrace the new Islamist-led rulers in Damascus.
Diplomats say the EU will only suspend the sanctions and not lift them definitively so as to keep some leverage over the new Islamist regime Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), led by Ahmed al-Sharaa.
A "fall-back mechanism" can reinstate the penalties if HTS fails to deliver on its promises of inclusive governance.
Assad, whose family had ruled Syria with an iron first for 54 years, was toppled by Islamist rebels on 8 December, bringing an abrupt end to a devastating 13-year civil war that had created one of the biggest refugee crises of modern times.
The conflict left large parts of many major cities in ruins and the vast majority of the population living in poverty. The imposing of tough Western sanctions on Syria has effectively cut off its formal economy from the rest of the world.
(with newswires)
