President Trump on Monday signed an executive order dismantling a series of sanctions on Syria, providing more relief to the new authorities in Damascus who overthrew Syrian dictator Bashar Assad late last year.
The administration said its lifting the sanctions without conditions, but hopes the move to end Syria’s isolation in global financial markets will encourage the government headed by the U.S.-designated terrorist Ahmed al-Sharaa to fulfill a number of criteria related to countering terrorism, integrating the Syrian Kurdish forces, respect for minorities, and establishing ties with Israel.
“Neither the president nor the secretary of State are nation building, they’re not dictating,” Ambassador to the Republic of Türkiye and Special Envoy for Syria Tom Barrack said.
“They’re not requiring, they’re not giving the framework of the democratic model that needs to be implemented to their architectural desire. They’re saying we’re going to give you an opportunity.”
The move was welcomed by the Syrian Emergency Task Force (SETF), a nongovernmental organization that has worked to track war crimes in Syria by Assad and his forces and advocate for lifting sanctions on the country under the new government.
“We are proud of this amazing achievement and grateful for Ambassador Thomas Barrack, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and President Donald Trump for giving Syria a chance at democracy,” SETF’s Advocacy Director, Veronica Zanetta-Brandoni said in a statement.
“It is now the responsibility of the new Syrian government to ensure safety and security, the transition to democracy, and economic prosperity for all Syrians.”
The SETF said the administration’s move continues efforts to hold Assad accountable.
“We are pleased to see commitment to accountability for the crimes committed by the Assad regime and by the terrorists of ISIS. This means helping the Syrians gather and analyze the documents and excavate the mass graves to determine the fate of more than 100,000 missing persons, including Americans Austin Tice and Dr. Majd Kamalmaz, and to lay the groundwork for trials of the major perpetrators,” said Stephen J. Rapp, the former U.S. ambassador-at-large for global criminal justice and SETF’s board member ambassador.
Trump announced during a speech in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on May 13 that he was lifting sanctions on Syria and blasted “interventionists” and “neocons” as wrecking “far more nations than they built.”
Brad Smith, acting undersecretary of the Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence at the Department of the Treasury, said the administration reserves the right to reimpose sanctions on Syria if it feels its actions are harming U.S. interests or violating criteria laid out.
Sanctions will remain on Assad and officials sanctioned for human rights abuses, corruption, terrorism and other violations.
“While we remain hopeful for the country’s future and its new government, we are also clear eyed that threats to peace remain,” Smith said in a briefing with reporters previewing the president’s executive order.
“The United States will remain ever vigilant where our interests and security are threatened, and Treasury will not hesitate to use our authorities to protect U.S. and international financial systems.”
A senior administration official, speaking on background under the terms of agreement for the call with reporters, said that Trump is not interested in using sanctions as leverage against Syria to pressure establishing ties with Israel and joining the Abraham Accords, the 2020 agreement that brokered ties between Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
“The way to entice them to get to the Abraham Accords is to make it fruitful for them on an economic basis, on a civilization basis, on a peace and prosperity basis, and that’s all coming together,” the official said.
In response to a question related to Israel’s control of the Golan Heights, which it seized from Syria during the Six-Day War in 1967, the official described the borders currently in the Middle East as an “illusion.”
Trump, in his first term, recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, while much of the international community refers to it as occupied. Israel seized additional Syrian territory near its border following the fall of Assad. The status of that territory could be a component of a peace deal between Jerusalem and Damascus.
“The lines that were drawn at 1948 and 1926 and 1967 and 1974 are all illusions,” the official said, saying they were “based on facts that were there at the time.”
“It doesn’t matter what the line is, if you don’t trust each other on the other side of the line, that’s going to continue forever,” the official said.
Trump’s executive order will begin to unravel decades of layered sanctions against Syria. The country was designated a State Sponsor of Terrorism in 1979, although the State Department did not immediately return a request for comment if that designation would be lifted. A fact sheet provided by the White House said that the Secretary of State will review Syria’s designation as a State Sponsor of Terrorism.
The secretary will also review the sanctions designation of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham’s as a Foreign Terrorist Organization — the group that overthrew Assad.
But Trump’s order will terminate the 2004 national emergency declaration related to Syria, and revoke five executive orders that constitute the basis of that program.
“The [executive order] will also direct certain actions with respect to waivers of applicable statutory sanctions, export controls and other restrictions,” a second senior administration official described to reporters on a call providing background of the president’s actions. The sanctions lifting will allow international transactions and communications to take place with the Syrian government and state-owned entities, like the Central Bank and other financial institutions.
The U.S. began imposing a number of layered sanctions on Syria in response to the outbreak of the civil war in that country in 2011 and responding to evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly carried out by the Assad regime.
Assad is currently in exile in Russia.
“The second part of the [executive order] is that it contains provisions that will ensure that sanctions remain on Assad, his cronies and other destabilizing regional actors, including terrorists, as well as those that proliferate weapons of mass destruction, in addition to counter narcotics,” the second official said.
