US eases some Syria sanctions, but stops short of widespread relief
The United States on Monday issued a sanctions waiver for Syria authorising a narrow range of transactions related to the sale of energy, humanitarian supplies and personal foreign remittances.
“This action underscores the United States' commitment to ensuring that US sanctions do not impede activities to meet basic human needs, including the provision of public services or humanitarian assistance,” a statement released by the Department of Treasury said, adding that the authorisation applies for six months.
The step to ease sanctions will help bring more humanitarian aid and basic services, such as electricity, into Syria, but stops well short of the broad sanctions relief Syria’s transition government and even some US lawmakers called for.
Notably, the waiver does not address reconstruction.
The sanctions relief applies to transactions with governing institutions in Syria to support “the sale, supply, storage, or donation of energy, including petroleum, petroleum products, natural gas, and electricity”.
The statement also removes sanctions on the transfer of “noncommercial, personal remittances,” which could help millions of Syrian refugees abroad send money back home.
Notably, the US will still enforce sanctions on importing Syrian oil or petroleum products into the US. The Syrian military and intelligence services are also still under sanction. Syrian state assets abroad are still blocked.
The US move comes as Syria’s new transition government led by Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a former Al Qaeda affiliate, steps up its calls for debilitating sanctions on Syria to be lifted.
Syria's new trade minister, Maher Khalil al-Hasan, told Reuters on Monday that Syria faced “a catastrophe” if sanctions were not lifted to allow the war-ravaged country to start high-level investments in industry, energy, and oil. He also said US sanctions were holding up the import of wheat.
Read More »Syria's interim foreign minister, Asaad al-Shaibani, also called on the US to lift sanctions during a visit to Qatar on Sunday.
The US has applied a thicket of sanctions on Syria, going back to 1979 when it designated Syria a state sponsor of terrorism. In 2006, President George W Bush imposed sweeping sanctions prohibiting American exports to Syria and banning transactions with the country’s Commercial Bank.
Syria descended into civil war following the 2011 Arab Spring. The US slapped more sanctions on the Syrian government and began enforcing secondary sanctions. In 2019, Congress passed sweeping sanctions under the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act.
In December, the US lifted a $10m bounty on HTS leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, also known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, after he met senior US officials in Damascus. MEE first reported that the US was weighing removing the bounty as a "first step" to engage Syria's new rulers.
The small step by the Biden administration on Monday could create more confusion regarding transactions because HTS is still sanctioned and designated a US terror group.
The fate of Syria sanctions is going to decided by the incoming Trump administration. Some former US officials familiar with the Trump transition have expressed less willingness to engage HTS. Trump himself said that HTS’s toppling of the Bashar al-Assad government was an “unfriendly takeover” of Syria by Turkey.
But other Republican lawmakers have called for sweeping sanctions relief.
"A Trump tower in Damascus one day would be a welcome development!" Republican US Congressman Joe Wilson, a prominent architect of the Assad-era Syria sanctions, said in December, advocating for Syria to be swiftly reconnected to the global economy.
Turkey and other oil-rich Gulf states including the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia could expand their influence in Syria and may be eyeing billions of dollars in reconstruction deals.
