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The US has lifted most of its sanctions on Syria, saying the move would give the country an “opportunity” to rebuild an economy ravaged by more than 14 years of civil war.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order terminating the sanctions programme on Monday, according to an announcement from the White House on X.
The sanctions relief is a vote of confidence in Syria’s leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, whose Islamist movement led a rebel offensive last year that toppled dictator Bashar al-Assad and ended his family’s more than 50-year dynastic rule over the Arab state.
Trump first announced plans to lift the sanctions during a trip to the Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh in May, saying the move was designed to give Sharaa’s fledgling government a better chance of survival. He also said Washington was exploring normalising relations with the new Syrian government.
Trump met Sharaa in Riyadh shortly afterwards, describing him as a “tough guy” and a “fighter” with a “very strong past”.
US officials said Trump’s executive order would allow Washington to “maintain sanctions where appropriate” including against Assad, who is in exile in Russia, his associates, “and other destabilising regional actors”.
“Today’s actions . . . will end the country’s isolation from the international financial system, setting the stage for global commerce and galvanising investments from its neighbours in the region, as well as from the United States,” said Brad Smith, acting under secretary of the office of terrorism and financial intelligence at the US Treasury department.
Smith said Trump had “responded decisively at this historic moment, announcing that US sanctions would not stand in the way of what could be a brighter future for the country”.
“While we remain hopeful for the country’s future and its new government, we are also clear-eyed that the threats to peace remain,” he said, adding that the US would remain “ever vigilant where our interests and security are threatened, and Treasury will not hesitate to use our authority to protect us and international financial systems”.
The executive order Trump signed would also “review” Syria’s designation as a state sponsor of terrorism, officials said.
The sanctions relief is also in line with the Trump administration’s wider aims in the Middle East, with officials hoping Syria could eventually join the Abraham Accords with Israel.
Brokered in Trump’s first term, the accords led to the United Arab Emirates and three other Arab states formalising relations with Israel in 2020.
Israel launched an aggressive military campaign inside Syria following Assad’s ousting, seizing swaths of territory and repeatedly striking inside the country.
But Israel’s foreign minister Gideon Sa’ar said on Monday the country would be open to establishing ties with Syria, which has officially been at war with the Jewish state since it was founded in 1948.
Trump’s executive order signals a remarkable shift in US policy. Sharaa and his Hayat Tahrir al-Sham movement, whose former members dominate the new government and security forces in Damascus, had been designated terrorists by the US because of their past affiliations with al-Qaeda.
Sharaa renounced his ties to the terrorist organisation in 2016 and has pledged to make his government inclusive and respect all Syria’s sects and minorities.
The Syrian government hopes that easing sanctions will help the country’s recovery by triggering an influx of foreign investment and trade. They also hope they will give a boost to Sharaa as he battles to consolidate control over the fragmented nation.
In May, Washington took the first step in removing economic sanctions against Syria when the Treasury department issued a general licence authorising any future transactions with individuals and entities connected to Sharaa’s government, as well as the central bank and several state-owned enterprises.
The state department also issued a 180-day waiver for the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act, a stringent set of sanctions imposed by Congress in 2019 that aimed to isolate the Assad dynasty by rendering anyone who did business with them a pariah in the global financial system.
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