President Donald Trump signed on Monday an executive order that ends a program of sanctions from the United States in Syria, allowing the end of the isolation of the country of the international financial system and building Washington’s promise to help him rebuild after a devastating civil war.
The measure will allow the United States to maintain sanctions to the former president expelled from Syria, Bashar al-Assad, its associates, human rights abusers, drug traffickers, people linked to chemical weapons activities, the Islamic State and Isis affiliated and representatives for Iran, the cover of the White House, Karoline Leavitt, told reporters in a kiss.
Assad was shot down in December in a ray offensive by rebels led by Islamists and Syria has taken measures to restore international ties.
Syrian Foreign Minister Ashibani Ashibani said that Trump’s termination of the Syrian sanctions program “would open the door of the long-awaited reconstruction and development,” according to a position of the Minister of Foreign Affairs on the Social Network Platform X.
He said the measure “would raise the obstacle” against economic recovery and open the country to the international community.
The president of Syria, Ahmed al-Sharaa and Trump, gathered in Riyadh in May, where, in an important policy change, Trump unexpectedly announced that he would lift US sanctions to Syria, which led Washington to significantly relieve their measures.
Some in Congress are pressing so that the measures are totally repealed, while Europe has announced the end of its economic sanctions regime.
“Syria needs to have a chance, and that is what happened,” said Syria Thomas Barrack’s special envoy in an informative call. He described Monday’s movement as “the culmination of a very tedious, detailed and unbearable process of how these sanctions develop.”
The White House on a fact sheet said that the order orders the Secretary of State to review the Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham terrorism designations, a rebel group that Sharaa led that it has roots in Al Qaeda, as well as the appointment of Syria as a state sponsor of terrorism.
The White House said the Administration would continue to monitor Syria’s progress in key priorities, including “take concrete measures to normalize ties with Israel, go to foreign terrorists, deport Palestinian terrorists and prohibit Palestinian terrorist groups.”
Layers of American sanctions
TO Reuters The investigation published on Monday revealed the role of the forces of the Syrian government in the murder of more than 1,500 Syrian alauitas for three days of massacres along the Mediterranean coast of the country in March. The Trump administration did not comment on the Reuters report.
It was not clear immediately if Washington was raising the sanctions to any of the factions that Reuters found that they were involved.
Syrians hope that the flexibility of sanctions will clear the way for greater participation by humanitarian organizations that work in the country, encouraging foreign investment and commerce as it is rebuilt.
Following Trump’s announcement in May, the United States Department of the Treasury issued a general license that authorized the transactions involving the interim Syrian government, as well as the central bank and state companies.
However, the United States has imposed layers of sanctions against Syria, some of which are authorized by legislation, including César Law. The revocation of the measures is necessary for Syria to attract a long -term investment without the parties fear the risk of violating the sanctions of the United States.
“Now we are, in accordance with the Executive Order, we will see the suspension criteria for the César Law,” said a senior administration official.
The majority of the United States sanctions against Syria were imposed on the Assad government and the key people in 2011 after the civil war broke out in the country.
The dismantling of the US sanctions program in Syria includes Tuesday’s completion a national emergency declared in 2004 and revoke the linked executive orders, according to the order signed on Monday.
The executive order also directs additional actions, including some with respect to the exemptions of export controls and other restrictions, the order read.
