Thursday, 31 July 2025

Trump Administration Lifts Sanctions From Middle Eastern Country

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President Trump on Monday signed an executive order lifting sanctions on Syria to “support the country’s path to stability and peace.”

“The Order removes sanctions on Syria while maintaining sanctions on Bashar al-Assad, his associates, human rights abusers, drug traffickers, persons linked to chemical weapons activities, ISIS or its affiliates, and Iranian proxies,” a fact sheet from the White House read.

“The Order directs the Secretary of State to evaluate suspending sanctions, either in whole or in part if specific criteria are met, under the Caesar Act, a law that sanctions the Assad regime for atrocities,” it continued.

“Today, @POTUS will issue a new Executive Order lifting U.S. sanctions on Syria, reaffirming his belief that the Syrian people deserve a future of safety and prosperity,” the State Department wrote.

WATCH:

Trump announced in Saudi Arabia last month that he planned to lift sanctions on Syria “to give them a chance at greatness.”

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Trump made the announcement while giving remarks at the Saudi-U.S. Investment Forum.

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More info from POLITICO:

The move realizes a promise Trump made during a visit to Saudi Arabia in May to lift all sanctions on Syria. Saudi Arabia and Turkey have both pushed for the U.S. to remove the restrictions to facilitate reconstruction and allow its new leaders to see benefits from reintegration.

Later that month, the U.S. issued preliminary guidance to the public that effectively lifted most restrictions but the new executive order makes that permanent.

As part of the executive order, Trump will direct relevant agencies to examine scrapping sanctions that he cannot remove unilaterally, such as assessing what is required to suspend sanctions imposed under the Caesar Act and to revoke Syria’s state sponsor of terror designation as well as one on HTS, the group headed by the country’s leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, the officials said. The Caesar sanctions would ultimately have to be repealed by Congress.

“President Trump believes ‘there is great potential in working with Syria to stop radicalism, improve relations, and secure peace in the Middle East,’” according to a fact sheet released by the White House.

The U.S. has had some level of sanctions on Syria since 1979, when the U.S. designated it a state sponsor of terrorism. The U.S. expanded those measures in 2004 over Syria’s military presence in Lebanon and support for militant groups. In 2011, Washington imposed sweeping sanctions on Syrian officials, oil exports and the financial sector in response to President Bashar Assad’s brutal crackdown on protesters.

“Removing sanctions will support Syria’s efforts to rebuild and counter terrorism without empowering harmful actors,” the fact sheet read.

“A unified Syria that protects its people and rejects extremism strengthens security and prosperity in the Middle East,” it added.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt spoke to reporters about the executive order.

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ABC News noted:

When he met with Syria’s new president Ahmad al-Sharaa last month, Trump announced he would lift the crippling U.S. sanctions against Syria and urged al-Sharaa to meet specified conditions in hopes that it will stabilize the country.

Those conditions included normalizing relations with Syria’s neighbors, including Israel, as well as the United States.

Ahmad al-Sharaa is a former al-Qaeda insurgent who fought against U.S. forces in Iraq and served time in the infamous Abu Ghraib prison.

Senior Trump administration officials who previewed the president’s action terminating the Syria sanctions program said it would dismantle the architecture of the program established by the executive branch while maintaining provisions targeted at Bashar Al Assad, his collaborators, and other destabilizing forces still at work in the region.

U.S. Ambassador to Turkey and the administration’s Special Envoy for Syria Tom Barrack cast the executive order — which is intended to work in tandem with the general waiver significantly easing sanctions that was issued by the U.S. in May — as a move by the president to “give these guys a chance,” referring to Syria’s interim government.

“You have a general who transitioned from wartime into a position of being the leader of a reframed new country that needs everything, and that’s basically what’s happened, but the vision and the execution was limited by our imposition of sanctions,” he said. “Syria needs to be given a chance, and that’s what’s happened.”

Barrack also said the purpose driving Trump was not to hold leverage over the newly-formed government.

“But one thing is clear, neither the president or the secretary of state is nation building. They’re not dictating, they’re not requiring. They’re not giving the framework of the democratic model that needs to be implemented to their architecture or desire. They’re saying we are going to give you an opportunity. We have a bunch of criteria that we want to watch along the way,” he said, referencing the Abraham Accords, integrating foreign fighters in Syrian society, protecting U.S. allies who fought against ISIS, and other issues.


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