Syria welcomes U.S. decision to ease Assad-era sanctions as a ‘positive step’

DAMASCUS, Syria — Syria considers the move by the Trump administration to ease sanctions imposed on the war-torn country as a “positive step” to ease humanitarian and economic suffering, its Foreign Ministry said Saturday.

In a statement, the ministry said Syria “extends its hand” to anyone who wants to cooperate with Damascus, on the condition that there is no intervention in the country’s internal affairs.

The statement came after the Trump administration granted Syria sweeping exemptions from sanctions on Friday in a major first step toward fulfilling the president’s pledge to lift a half-century of penalties on a country shattered by 14 years of civil war.

Thomas Barrack , the U.S. ambassador to Turkey who has also been appointed as special envoy for Syria, met with Syria’s president and foreign minister during their visit to Turkey on Saturday, adding the President Ahmad al-Sharaa welcomed Washington’s “fast action on lifting sanctions.”

“President Trump’s goal is to enable the new government to create the conditions for the Syrian people to not only survive but thrive,” Barrack said in a statement.

Barrack said that the cessation of sanctions against Syria will preserve the integrity “of our primary objective — the enduring defeat of” the Islamic State militant group, also known as IS or ISIS — and give Syrians a chance for a better future.

“I also commended President al-Sharaa on taking meaningful steps towards enacting President Trump’s points on foreign terrorist fighters, counter-ISIS measures, relations with Israel, and camps and detention centers in Northeast Syria,” Barrack said in a statement. He was referring to detention centers where thousands of Islamic State members are held and two camps where their families stay in areas controlled by the U.S.-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.

A measure by the U.S. State Department waived for six months a tough set of sanctions imposed by Congress in 2019. A Treasury Department action suspended enforcement of sanctions against anyone doing business with some Syrian individuals and entities, including Syria’s central bank.

The congressional sanctions, known as the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act, had aimed to isolate Syria’s previous rulers by in effect expelling those doing business with them from the global financial system. They specifically block postwar reconstruction, so while they 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.

The Trump administration said Friday’s actions were “just one part of a broader U.S. government effort to remove the full architecture of sanctions.” Those penalties had been imposed on the government of former President Bashar Assad for its support of Iranian-backed militias and its chemical weapons program and abuses of civilians.

Trump said during a visit to the region this month that the U.S. would roll back the heavy financial penalties in an effort to give the interim government a better chance of survival.

Damascus resident Nael Kaddah said that the country will flourish again now that the sanctions are being eased. He said Syrians will be able to transfer money freely, unlike in the past, when there were several companies that monopolized the business and took large commissions on transfers.

“Now any citizen can receive a transfer from anywhere in the world,” he said.

Syria’s Foreign Ministry said dialogue and diplomacy are the best way to build “balanced relations that achieve the interest of the people and strengthen security and stability in the region.”

It added that the coming period in Syria will be reconstruction and restoring “Syria’s natural status” in the region and around the world.

Alsayed writes for the Associated Press.