US President Donald Trump signed an executive order late on Monday ending many economic sanctions on Syria. The order follows through on promises made to Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa during their meeting in Riyadh in May.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt says the order is designed to “promote and support the country's path to stability and peace.”
The executive order is meant to “end the country’s isolation from the international financial system, setting the stage for global commerce and galvanizing investments from its neighbours in the region, as well as from the United States,” said Brad Smith, US Treasury’s acting undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.
Washington granted Syria sweeping exemptions from sanctions in May, which was a first step towards fulfilling Trump’s pledge to lift the half-a-century old of penalties on a country shattered by 13 years of brutal civil war.
Along with the lifting of economic sanctions, Monday’s executive order lifts the national emergency outlined in an executive order issued by former Republican President George W. Bush.
Bush’s order was in response to Syria’s occupation of Lebanon and the pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and missile programs, Treasury officials said. Five other previous executive orders related to Syria were also lifted.
Monday’s order does not however revoke sanctions imposed on ousted former President Bashar al-Assad, his top aides, family members and officials who had been determined to have committed human rights abuses, been involved in drug trafficking or part of Syria’s chemical weapons programme.
It also leaves intact a major set of sanctions passed by Congress targeting anyone doing business with or offering support to Syria’s military, intelligence or other suspect institutions.
While the Trump administration has passed temporary waivers on those sanctions, known as the Caesar Act, they can only be permanently rescinded by law.
Sanctions targeting terrorist groups and manufacturers and sellers of the amphetamine-like stimulant Captagon, which al-Assad regime officials were widely accused of having benefited from its trade in the Middle East, will remain in place.
Trump met with al-Sharaa in the Saudi Arabian capital, Riyadh, in May as part of his three country tour of the Middle East. The 47th US president told his Syrian counterpart he would lift sanctions and explore normalising relations in a major policy shift between Washington and Damascus.
“This is another promise made and promise kept,” Leavitt said Monday.
Since Trump’s first announcement in Riyadh of removing sanctions on Syria, the European Union and United Kingdom have since followed suit. The EU has lifted nearly all of its remaining sanctions on Syria.
While Trump’s order is a major move for Damascus, carrying potentially major positive effects on its struggling economy, some restrictions still remain in place.
The US has still not removed its designation of Syria as a state-sponsor of terrorism. The group al-Sharaa led – Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) – is also still regarded as a foreign terror organisation. A State Department official says those designations are being reviewed.
