DOHA, Qatar

Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani on Friday said his country has been making efforts for lifting of sanctions on Syria since the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime last month.

Speaking to Al Jazeera Arabic, he said the sanctions imposed on the Assad regime were illogical in the current context, calling for a reassessment.

Sanctions by the US, EU and others were imposed on the erstwhile Assad regime after the 2011 civil war.

Sheikh Mohammed, who is also the foreign minister, also stressed his country's rejection to "Israel's reckless incursion into the buffer zone of Syria."

Immediately following the collapse of the Assad regime, Israel expanded its occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights by seizing a UN-supervised demilitarized buffer zone.

"We spoke with the leader of the new Syrian administration Ahmed al-Sharaa, and emphasized the need for the Israeli withdrawal, and (its) incursion must not pose a new reality," added the prime minister, who met the leader of Syria's new administration in Damascus on Thursday.

He said al-Sharaa's vision towards the minorities in Syria is "promising," and that the new administration is committed to preserving the country's "diverse social fabric."

"We envision Syria as a state of citizenship founded on merit rather than sectarianism. We remain confident in the Syrian people's commitment to preserving their territorial integrity," he added.

Assad, Syria’s leader for nearly 25 years, fled to Russia after anti-regime groups took control of Damascus on Dec. 8, ending his family's decades-long rule.​​​​​​​

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar in Ankara