The United States has given Syria a list of conditions for partial sanctions relief, including distancing foreign fighters and helping to find missing journalist Austin Tice, according to anonymous sources. The demands were handed to Syrian foreign minister Asaad al-Shibani at a meeting in Brussels on 18 March. In return for fulfilling the demands, the US would provide some sanctions relief, including a two-year extension of an existing exemption for transactions with Syrian governing institutions. Syria is in desperate need of sanctions relief to kick-start its economy, which has been devastated by 14 years of war.