{"id":32876,"date":"2025-06-30T20:04:56","date_gmt":"2025-06-30T20:04:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=32876"},"modified":"2025-06-30T20:04:56","modified_gmt":"2025-06-30T20:04:56","slug":"donald-trump-lifts-most-us-sanctions-on-syria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=32876","title":{"rendered":"Donald Trump lifts most US sanctions on Syria"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> \n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__content-sign-up-topic-description o3-type-body-base\">Your guide to what Trump\u2019s second term means for Washington, business and the world<\/p>\n<p><iframe class=\"article__content-sign-up-iframe close\" scrolling=\"no\" id=\"signUpIframe\" data-prev-url=\"\/register\/in-article-sign-up?ft-content-uuid=458a5122-bf22-46fd-9fdd-082e005aed96&amp;newsletter-id=65b8fec772badb00166eafc6\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<p>The US has lifted most of its sanctions on Syria, saying the move would give the country an \u201copportunity\u201d to rebuild an economy ravaged by more than 14 years of civil war.<\/p>\n<p>President Donald Trump signed an executive order terminating the sanctions programme on Monday, according to an <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/RapidResponse47\/status\/1939772079269929105\" data-trackable=\"link\">announcement<\/a> from the White House on X. <\/p>\n<p>The sanctions relief is a vote of confidence in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/syria\" data-trackable=\"link\">Syria<\/a>\u2019s leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, whose Islamist movement led a rebel offensive last year that toppled dictator Bashar al-Assad and ended his family\u2019s more than 50-year dynastic rule over the Arab state.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/donald-trump\" data-trackable=\"link\">Trump<\/a> first announced plans to lift the sanctions during a trip to the Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh in May, saying the move was designed to give Sharaa\u2019s fledgling government a better chance of survival. He also said Washington was exploring normalising relations with the new Syrian government.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Trump met Sharaa in Riyadh shortly afterwards, describing him as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/23afa500-cfd8-4fb7-b950-57be74714172\" data-trackable=\"link\">a \u201ctough guy\u201d<\/a> and a \u201cfighter\u201d with a \u201cvery strong past\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>US officials said Trump\u2019s executive order would allow Washington to \u201cmaintain sanctions where appropriate\u201d including against Assad, who is in exile in Russia, his associates, \u201cand other destabilising regional actors\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cToday\u2019s actions\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009will end the country\u2019s isolation from the international financial system, setting the stage for global commerce and galvanising investments from its neighbours in the region, as well as from the United States,\u201d said Brad Smith, acting under secretary of the office of terrorism and financial intelligence at the US Treasury department.<\/p>\n<p>Smith said Trump had \u201cresponded decisively at this historic moment, announcing that US sanctions would not stand in the way of what could be a brighter future for the country\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile we remain hopeful for the country\u2019s future and its new government, we are also clear-eyed that the threats to peace remain,\u201d he said, adding that the US would remain \u201cever vigilant where our interests and security are threatened, and Treasury will not hesitate to use our authority to protect us and international financial systems\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The executive order Trump signed would also \u201creview\u201d Syria\u2019s designation as a state sponsor of terrorism, officials said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The sanctions relief is also in line with the Trump administration\u2019s wider aims in the Middle East, with officials hoping Syria could eventually join the Abraham Accords with Israel.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Brokered in Trump\u2019s first term, the accords led to the United Arab Emirates and three other Arab states formalising relations with Israel in 2020.<\/p>\n<p>Israel launched an aggressive military campaign inside Syria following Assad\u2019s ousting, seizing swaths of territory and repeatedly striking inside the country.<\/p>\n<p>But Israel\u2019s foreign minister Gideon Sa\u2019ar said on Monday the country would be open to establishing ties with Syria, which has officially been at war with the Jewish state since it was founded in 1948.<\/p>\n<p>Trump\u2019s executive order signals a remarkable shift in US policy. Sharaa and his Hayat Tahrir al-Sham movement, whose former members dominate the new government and security forces in Damascus, had been designated terrorists by the US because of their past affiliations with al-Qaeda.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Sharaa renounced his ties to the terrorist organisation in 2016 and has pledged to make his government inclusive and respect all Syria\u2019s sects and minorities.<\/p>\n<p>The Syrian government hopes that easing sanctions will help the country\u2019s recovery by triggering an influx of foreign investment and trade. They also hope they will give a boost to Sharaa as he battles to consolidate control over the fragmented nation.<\/p>\n<aside aria-labelledby=\"aside-label\" class=\"n-content-recommended--single-story n-content-recommended--inset\" data-component=\"recommended\">\n<p class=\"n-content-recommended__title o3-type-body-highlight\">Recommended<\/p>\n<div class=\"o-teaser o-teaser--article o-teaser--small o-teaser--stacked o-teaser--has-image o-teaser--opinion js-teaser\" data-id=\"ef2034df-f1a7-4bb3-9ae9-73a07453eb85\">\n<div class=\"o-teaser__image-container js-teaser-image-container\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/ef2034df-f1a7-4bb3-9ae9-73a07453eb85\" data-trackable=\"image-link\" data-trackable-context-story-link=\"image-link\" tabindex=\"-1\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"o-teaser__image-placeholder\" style=\"aspect-ratio:2290\/1288\"><\/div>\n<p><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>In May, Washington took the first step in removing economic sanctions against Syria when the Treasury department issued a general licence authorising any future transactions with individuals and entities connected to Sharaa\u2019s government, as well as the central bank and several state-owned enterprises.<\/p>\n<p>The state department also issued a 180-day waiver for the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act, a stringent set of sanctions imposed by Congress in 2019 that aimed to isolate the Assad dynasty by rendering anyone who did business with them a pariah in the global financial system.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/458a5122-bf22-46fd-9fdd-082e005aed96\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free Your guide to what Trump\u2019s second term means for Washington,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":32877,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","cs-entry","cs-video-wrap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/32877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}