Trump lifts bulk of US sanctions against Syria
US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday to end the US sanctions programme on Syria. He had initially made the surprise announcement during a speech in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in May, and also met with interim Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa while there.
"This is in an effort to promote and support the country’s path to stability and peace," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters ahead of the signing.
"The order will remove sanctions on Syria while maintaining sanctions on the former President Assad, his associates, human rights abusers, drug traffickers, persons linked to chemical weapons activities, ISIS and their affiliates, and Iranian proxies," she added.
Trump, she said, is "committed to supporting a Syria that is stable, unified and at peace with itself and its neighbours... this is another promise made, and promise kept by this president to promote peace and stability in the region”.
Syria's Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani welcomed the move in a post on X.
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"This decision represents an important turning point that will help propel Syria toward a new phase of prosperity, stability, and openness to the international community," he wrote.
"By removing this major obstacle to economic recovery, the doors to long-awaited reconstruction and development will be opened, along with the rehabilitation of vital infrastructure, creating the conditions necessary for the dignified and safe return of displaced Syrians to their homeland."
The text of the order was made public late on Monday afternoon local time in Washington, and stipulated that the circumstances that initially gave rise to the programme "have been transformed by developments over the past 6 months, including the positive actions taken by the new Syrian government under President Ahmed al-Sharaa."
The lifting of the sanctions and the issuance of waivers that permit the relaxation of export controls, it added, are moves that support "US national security and foreign policy goals".
Anyone who has "materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services to or in support of the former regime of Bashar al-Assad" will continue to be sanctioned, the text said.
Other parties who are designated as terrorists in the US will remain on those lists.
Sharaa himself had a $10m bounty on his head until it was lifted in December. When Trump met with Sharaa in Riyadh, he said he was impressed by the leader, a former al-Qaeda fighter who fought against US forces in Iraq.
Decades of punitive measures
The sanctions regime on Syria was five decades in the making, predating even the 2011 Arab Spring and Syrian Civil War.
When Hafez al-Assad took power in Syria in a 1970 coup, Syria was receiving financial and military aid from the Soviet Union. The elder Assad was renowned for keeping channels open to the US and its Cold War foes, but in 1979, he fell out with the US over Lebanon, and Syria was designated a state sponsor of terrorism.
The designation put Syria in the same group as Cuba and Iran. It imposed sweeping new restrictions on US foreign aid, a ban on defence sales, export controls for dual-use items and other financial restrictions.
In 2004, the George W Bush administration accused Syria, by then ruled by Hafez’s son Bashar, of possessing weapons of mass destruction, supporting militant groups in the region (including Hezbollah and Hamas) and destabilising Iraq and Lebanon.
It further limited economic interactions with Syria, banning most exports and freezing the assets of several individuals and entities.
The most extensive set of global sanctions came after 2011, when the Assad government cracked down on peaceful anti-government protests, sparking a civil war.
In response to war crimes and serious human rights violations, the EU froze the assets of state-linked individuals and banned them from admission to Europe.
It also prohibited the purchase, sale and export of goods in sectors that may be used against civilians, including technology, oil and gas.
The US went further still, banning all trade ties, including the re-export of US goods and services to Syria, with the exception of food and medicine.
In 2019, under the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act - named after “Caesar”, a Syrian military defector who smuggled out tens of thousands of photos showing torture and deaths in prisons - secondary sanctions were introduced.
These allowed the US to punish companies in other countries if they engaged in transactions with sanctioned Syrian companies and entities.
In December 2024, after a brutal 14-year civil war, Sharaa's rebel forces, who had been in control of Idlib, toppled Damascus, ending the Assad dynasty.
Assad fled with his family to Moscow.
Syria's strategic importance
Last month, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told lawmakers that to attract much-needed foreign investment in Syria, the US will begin by issuing waivers under the Caesar Act.
However, waivers have expiry dates, and until further progress is made by the interim government, that seems to be the extent to which the US will issue relief, he indicated at the time.
"I don't think the issue with them right now is a matter of willingness or lack of willingness. It's a lack of capability," Rubio said of Sharaa's efforts to rein in armed factions.
For Washington, there's also the crucial matter of its primary partner in the region, Israel.
"We've had conversations with them about this, what we view as an opportunity for Israel, if, in fact, Syria is stable and has in it a government that has no interest... in fighting a war," Rubio told lawmakers.
He said there have been some assurances from Damascus.
"Obviously, you have to prove it, but they have said this is a nationalist project. They are seeking to build a nation. They're not viewing themselves as a launch pad for revolution. They're not viewing themselves as a launch pad for attacks against Israel."
Israel occupied Syria's Golan Heights, where Sharaa's family comes from, in 1967, and today, Trump recognises it as Israeli territory despite the United Nations asserting its illegality.
When Bashar al-Assad's reign collapsed, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered troops into the Golan Heights buffer zone "to ensure that no hostile force embeds itself right next to the border of Israel".
He also ordered the bombing of dozens of sites across Syria that he maintained were weapons caches for Hezbollah, an ally of the deposed leader of Syria.
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