Trump Says He Will Lift Syria Sanctions
President Donald Trump announced May 13 that he plans to order the “cessation of sanctions against Syria” to give the war-torn country a “chance at greatness.”
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Trump, who revealed his decision in Saudi Arabia, the first stop on his Middle East tour, said he made his decision after consulting with regional leaders, including Saudi Crown Price Mohammed bin Salman and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
“In Syria, which has seen so much misery and death, there’s a new government that will, hopefully, succeed in stabilizing the country and keeping peace,” Trump said. “That’s what we want to see in Syria.”
Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking member Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., welcomed Trump’s decision, saying the Syria sanctions “succeeded in their original goal of aiding in the downfall of the brutal" Bashar Assad regime in December. She said that removing the sanctions will “give the new Syria a chance to develop into a free and prosperous state independent of the malign influence of Russia, Iran and China.”
Trump made his announcement a day after telling reporters he was considering lifting the sanctions to give Syria a “fresh start” (see 2505120017).
The Biden administration provided some sanctions relief to Syria in January by issuing a license that authorizes certain government, energy and personal remittance-related transactions (see 2501060034). Since then, several lawmakers, including Shaheen, have called for additional sanctions relief to help the country rebuild after years of civil war and discourage it from turning to the likes of Iran and Russia for help (see 2504230016 and 2503240050).
It is unclear how quickly Trump will remove the sanctions. Two researchers told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in February that the U.S. should gradually ease the sanctions and link the lifting of many restrictions to whether Syria's new leaders break with their extremist past as promised (see 2502130029).