Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shibani on Sunday reiterated his government’s call for the United States to lift sanctions on Syria.

He made the call during an interview with reporters on the sidelines of his visit to Qatar, where he met with senior Qatari officials.

Shibani, accompanied by Syrian Defense Minister Murhaf Abu Kasra and intelligence chief Anas Khattab, met with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdelrahman al-Thani.

The Qatari prime minister “reiterated Qatar’s position in favor of the unity, national sovereignty and independence of Syria,” according to a press release from his country’s foreign ministry.

Unlike other Arab countries, Qatar, which supported the opposition during the war in Syria, has never restored diplomatic relations with the government of Bashar al-Assad, who was toppled on December 8 by a coalition of rebel groups led by radical Islamist organization Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.

But it was the second country, after Turkey, to reopen its embassy in the Syrian capital after Assad fell.

After a meeting with Qatari Foreign Minister Mohammed al-Hulaifi, the Syrian minister told reporters that he had presented Qatari officials with the “road map” of the new Syrian government.

He also said that he raised the issue of the sanctions imposed on his country which, according to him, constitute an “obstacle to a rapid recovery” of the Syrian economy.

The West imposed sanctions on Bashar al-Assad’s government after it suppressed a popular uprising in 2011 that sparked a war that has killed more than 500,000 people, driven millions into exile and devastated the country.

“We renew our appeal to the US to lift the sanctions“, he underlined. In late December, Doha had also come out in favor of a swift lifting of sanctions.

Sibani confirmed that his government wishes to have “very good relations with the region”.