Key points
- Trump administration keeps sanctions on ex-Syrian president Assad
- Easing sanctions aims to boost foreign investment
- Syria hails move as a “major turning point”
ISLAMABAD: President Donald Trump on Monday formally dismantled US sanctions against Syria, hoping to reintegrate the war-battered country into the global economy.
Trump lifted most sanctions against Syria in May, responding to appeals from Saudi Arabia and Turkey after a coalition of Syrian fighters led by Ahmed al-Sharaa’s Hay’at Tahrir Al Sham ended a half-century of rule by the Assad family.
In an executive order, Trump terminated the “national emergency” in place since 2004 that imposed far-reaching sanctions on Syria, affecting most state-run institutions including the central bank.
“These actions reflect the president’s vision of fostering a new relationship between the United States and a Syria that is stable, unified and at peace with itself and its neighbours,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement.
In accordance with @POTUS’s Executive Order ‘Providing for the Revocation of Syria Sanctions,’ the U.S. is taking further actions to support a Syria that is stable, unified, and at peace with itself and its neighbors. U.S. sanctions will not be an impediment to Syria’s future.
— Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) June 30, 2025
The sprawling sanction programme, which included provisions related to the former government’s human rights abuses, has derailed reconstruction efforts in the country.
“Major turning point”
Trump promised sanctions relief for Syria during his visit to the Middle East in May, according to Al Jazeera.
Brad Smith, the Treasury Department official in charge of sanctions, said the new actions “will end the country’s isolation from the international financial system.”
Syrian Foreign Minister Assaad al-Shibani hailed the US move as a “major turning point.”
“With the lifting of this major obstacle to economic recovery, the long-awaited doors are opening for reconstruction and development” as are the conditions “for the dignified return of displaced Syrians to their homeland,” he wrote on X.
نُرحب بإلغاء الجزء الأكبر من برنامج العقوبات المفروضة على الجمهورية العربية السورية، بموجب القرار التنفيذي التاريخي الصادر عن الرئيس ترامب، يمثل هذا القرار نقطة تحول مهمة من شأنها أن تُسهم في دفع سوريا نحو مرحلة جديدة من الازدهار والاستقرار والانفتاح على المجتمع الدولي.
— أسعد حسن الشيباني (@AsaadHShaibani) June 30, 2025
Syria recently carried out its first electronic transfer through the international banking system since around the time it descended into a brutal civil war in 2011.
The orders still maintain sanctions on elements of the former government, including Bashar al-Assad, who fled to Russia late last year.
