SYRIAN authorities have described the United States’ claim of a partial and temporary suspension of some of its sanctions against the country as “misleading and false.”

On Thursday, the US Treasury Department said that a 180-day licence would authorise “all transactions related to earthquake relief that would be otherwise prohibited” by the nation’s sanctions on Syria.

It came after denials by state officials that its restrictions would not have an impact on humanitarian aid for the disaster, which has killed more than 3,500 people in the country.