The United Nations special envoy for Syria on Sunday called for a quick end to Western sanctions after the ouster of President Bashar Assad.The Syrian government has been under strict sanctions by the United States, European Union and others for years as a result of al-Assad’s brutal response to what began as peaceful anti-government protests in 2011 and later spiraled into a civil war.For all the latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.The conflict has killed nearly half a million people and displaced half the country’s pre-war population of 23 million. Rebuilding has been stymied to a large degree by sanctions that aimed to prevent rebuilding of damaged infrastructure and property in government-held areas in the absence of a political solution.“We can hopefully see a quick end to the sanctions so that we can see really a rallying around building of Syria,” UN envoy Geir Pedersen told reporters during a visit to Damascus.Pedersen came to the Syrian