Trump administration takes first steps in easing sanctions on Syria

It would be the first move to start fulfilling Trump’s announcement last week to ease heavy U.S. financial penalties targeting Syria’s former autocratic rulers — in a bid to give the new interim government a better chance of survival after a 13-year civil war.

The initial step is expected as soon as Friday or on Tuesday, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly.

In addition to a temporary waiver on a tough set of sanctions imposed by Congress six years ago, officials also support broadening Treasury Department rules setting out what foreign businesses can do in Syria, the officials said. They said there could still be changes to what is announced in the initial round of relief.

For more permanent relief, administration officials are debating the extent to which Syria’s transitional government should be required to meet tough security conditions.

“The Syria sanctions are a complex web of statutes, executive actions and United Nations Security Council resolutions that have to be unwound thoughtfully and cautiously,” White House National Security Council spokesman Max Bluestein said Thursday.

Syria is now led by Ahmad al-Sharaa, a former militant leader in charge of the overthrow of longtime leader Bashar Assad late last year. The U.S. and other allies hope al-Sharaa can stabilize Syria after a conflict that has left millions dead or displaced, the economy in ruins and thousands of foreign fighters still in-country.

U.S. presidents have piled up penalties against Syria’s former leaders over the decades because of their support for Iranian-backed militias, a chemical weapons program and abuses of civilians. Those could be quickly lifted or waived through executive action.

But Congress imposed some of the strictest measures and would have to permanently remove them.

Some Trump administration officials are pushing for relief as fast as possible without demanding tough conditions first. Others have proposed a phased approach, giving short-term waivers right away on some sanctions then tying extensions or a wider executive order to Syria meeting conditions. Doing so could substantially slow — or even permanently prevent — longer-term relief.

That would impede the interim government’s ability to attract investment and rebuild Syria after the war, critics say.

A welcome US announcement in Syria

People danced in the streets of Damascus after Trump announced in Saudi Arabia last week that he would be ordering a “cessation” of sanctions against Syria.

“We’re taking them all off,” Trump said a day before meeting the country’s new leader. “Good luck, Syria. Show us something special.”

In testimony before U.S. lawmakers, Secretary of State Marco Rubio pushed for sanctions relief to start quickly, saying Syria’s transition government could be weeks from “collapse and a full-scale civil war of epic proportions.”

But asked what sanctions relief should look like overall, Rubio gave a one-word explanation: “Incremental.”

The sanctions include penalties for outside companies or investors doing business there. Syria needs tens of billions of dollars in investment to restore its battered infrastructure and help the estimated 90% of the population living in poverty.

Syria’s interim leaders “didn’t pass their background check with the FBI,” Rubio acknowledged to lawmakers this week. The group that al-Sharaa led, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, was originally affiliated with al-Qaida, although it later renounced ties and took a more moderate tone. It is still listed by the U.S. as a terrorist organization.

But al-Sharaa’s government could be the best chance for rebuilding the country and avoiding a power vacuum that could allow a resurgence of the Islamic State and other extremist groups.

“If we engage them, it may work out, it may not work out. If we do not engage them, it was guaranteed to not work out,” Rubio said.

Mouaz Moustafa, executive director of the U.S.-based Syrian Emergency Task Force and an advocate who has been influential in helping shape past U.S. policy on Syria, said he has been circulating a framework for a proposed executive order that envisions Trump quickly revoking many sanctions outright.

Moustafa asserted that some in the administration were trying to “water down” Trump’s pledge, which he said was aimed at “preventing a failed state and ending perpetual violence.”

Debate within the Trump administration

Proposals are circulating among administration officials, including one shared this week that broadly emphasized taking all the action possible, as fast as possible, to help Syria rebuild, according to one of the U.S. officials familiar with the plan.

Another proposal — from State Department staff — that circulated last week proposes a three-phase road map, starting with short-term waivers then laying out sweeping requirements for future phases of relief or permanent lifting of sanctions, the official said.

Removing “Palestinian terror groups” from Syria is first on the list of conditions to get to the second phase. Supporters of sanctions relief say that particular condition might be impossible, given the subjectivity of determining which groups meet that definition and at what point they can be declared removed.

Other conditions for moving to the second phase are for the new government to take custody of detention facilities housing Islamic State fighters and to move forward on absorbing a U.S.-backed Kurdish force into the Syrian army.

To get to phase three, Syria would be required to join the Abraham Accords — normalized relations with Israel — and to prove that it had destroyed the previous government’s chemical weapons.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu previously pushed for the Trump administration not to lift sanctions on Syria. Israel has been suspicious of the new government, although Syrian officials have said publicly that they do not want a conflict with Israel.

Since Assad fell, Israel has launched hundreds of airstrikes and seized a U.N.-patrolled buffer zone in Syria.

Congressional sanctions on Syria will take much longer to lift

One of the most difficult penalty to lift could be the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act, a wide-reaching set of sanctions passed by Congress in response to alleged war crimes by Assad’s government.

It specifically blocks post-war reconstruction, and although it can be waived for 180 days by executive order, investors are likely to be wary of reconstruction projects when sanctions could be reinstated after six months.

In a meeting last week in Turkey with Syria’s foreign minister, Rubio and Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said permanent relief would require action by the Syrian government to meet conditions that the president laid out, according to other U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

“We have a moment here to provide some capability to this new government that should be conditions-based,” Graham said this week. “And I don’t want that moment to pass.”

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Sewell reported from Beirut. AP Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

Abby Sewell And Ellen Knickmeyer, The Associated Press

by Canadian Press

Trump administration takes first steps in easing sanctions on Syria

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