The Trump administration issued orders Friday to begin easing sanctions on Syria, marking a major policy shift after US President Donald Trump pledged earlier this month to roll back the measures during a trip to the Middle East.
Trump administration officials had been carrying out quiet engagements for months to pave the way for sanctions relief to help the nation recover from years of a devastating war and rebuild after the toppling of ousted leader Bashar al-Assad.
On Friday, the US Treasury Department said Syria has been issued a general license that authorizes transactions involving the interim Syrian government, as well as the central bank and state-owned enterprises.
The GL25 license “authorizes transactions prohibited by the Syrian Sanctions Regulations, effectively lifting sanctions on Syria,” and “will enable new investment and private sector activity consistent with the President’s America First strategy,” it said in a press release.
The US State Department concurrently issued a 180-day waiver under the Caesar Act to ensure sanctions do not impede investment, and advance Syria’s recovery and reconstruction efforts, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement.
Rubio said the waivers will facilitate the provision of electricity, energy, water, and sanitation, and enable a more effective humanitarian response across Syria.
“Today’s actions represent the first step in delivering on the President’s vision of a new relationship between Syria and the United States,” Rubio said.
While in Saudi Arabia last week, where he met with Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, Trump announced that sanctions on Syria would be swiftly removed, taking some officials by surprise and triggering a scramble across the US government to implement the decision,
Rubio said shortly after that the US would issue waivers to Syria sanctions, which are currently required by law. Meanwhile, the administration is engaged in a complicated technical review of the sanctions, which is expected to take weeks, officials said at the time.
“If we make enough progress, we’d like to see the law repealed, because you’re going to struggle to find people to invest in a country when any in six months, sanctions could come back. We’re not there yet. That’s premature,” Rubio said.
Speaking in Saudi Arabia, Trump said he made the decision to lift sanctions after speaking with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Saudi officials had coordinated behind the scenes on the topic for months, making the case that removing sanctions would boost the Syrian economy and help to stabilize the entire region.
The Turkish government also had contacts with the US about Syria and knew about the work being done to see if the lifting of sanctions was possible, a source familiar with the matter said. The Turkish government expressed support for those efforts.
But not all US allies in the region were in favor of where Trump was headed: Israel had opposed the move and Trump ignored their objections.
Trump acknowledged last week that he “didn’t ask” Israel about the Syria sanctions relief.
“I thought it was the right thing to do,” he said as he wrapped up his tour of the Middle East.