Syria Sanctions Relief Should Be Tied to New Gov't’s Performance, Senate Panel Hears
The U.S. should gradually ease sanctions on Syria to help the war-torn country rebuild, but the lifting of many of those restrictions should be linked to whether Syria’s new leaders live up to their promise to break from their extremist past, two researchers told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Feb. 13.
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While the Biden administration gave Syria “modest” sanctions relief in January mainly to support humanitarian efforts following the collapse of the Bashar al-Assad regime (see 2501060034), “extensive sanctions” against Syria remain in place, said Michael Singh, managing director at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and a former National Security Council official. Singh said the U.S. should take a “phased and performance-based approach” to removing the remaining sanctions, which would require Syria’s new government to “demonstrate that the original grounds for the sanctions no longer apply.”
“Sanctions that were intended primarily to isolate the Assad regime might be the first to be eased, whereas those prohibiting sensitive defense and related exports might remain in place for some time, for example,” Singh said in written testimony.
Singh cautioned against “placing too many conditions on sanctions relief,” which could alienate Syria’s new government and push it toward U.S. rivals. He also warned against “moving too quickly,” which “would risk setting a precedent that extremist groups elsewhere might hope to emulate.”
Dana Stroul, research director at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and a former congressional staffer, said the U.S. should begin a process “soon” to expand the sanctions relief granted in January. “In the short term, the United States can do more to ease Syria’s economic recovery by getting out of the way: partners in Europe and the Middle East can fill in gaps and provide assistance even if America will not, as long as they are assured of not violating U.S. sanctions,” she said in written testimony.
To provide longer-term relief, Stroul said she believes the U.S. should launch a “thorough and deliberate process” to review Syria’s designation as a state sponsor of terrorism, as well as sanctions imposed under the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act (see 2406050010 and 2006170015). “More expansive sanctions relief should be tied to the performance of the new government and its commitment to following through on its promising reform and stabilization agenda,” she said.
Committee Chairman Jim Risch, R-Idaho, said the NSC is developing a Syria policy and that his panel is providing input. “What I would propose they seriously consider … is a gradual lifting of the Caesar sanctions that we’ve put in place,” he said.
Committee ranking member Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., wants the U.S. to "move quickly toward targeted sanctions relief, and we're not talking about throwing open the doors to the U.S. banking system. But these sanctions were put in place on the Assad regime. That regime is gone. If we don't reevaluate those sanctions, we punish all Syrians for the sins of Assad."