Syria welcomes US move to ease sanctions imposed on it

Syria has welcomed the move by the Trump administration to ease sanctions, calling it a “positive step” to ease humanitarian and economic suffering in the war-torn country. Saturday's statement by the foreign ministry said Syria “extends its hand” to anyone that wants to cooperate with Damascus, on the condition that there is no intervention in the country’s internal affairs. The statement came a day after the Trump administration granted Syria sweeping exemptions from sanctions in a major first step toward fulfilling the president’s pledge to lift a half-century of penalties on a country shattered by 14 years of civil war.