WASHINGTON — (AP) — President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday ending many U.S. economic sanctions on Syria, following through on a promise he made to the country's new interim leader.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the move was designed to “promote and support the country's path to stability and peace.”
The executive order is meant to “end the country’s isolation from the international financial system, setting the stage for global commerce and galvanizing investments from its neighbors in the region, as well as from the United States,” Treasury’s acting undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, Brad Smith, told reporters on a call Monday to preview the administration’s action.
Monday's actions do not rescind sanctions imposed on ousted former President Bashar Assad, his top aides, family members and officials who had been determined to have committed human rights abuses or been involved in drug trafficking or part of Syria's chemical weapons program.
It also leaves intact a major set of sanctions passed by Congress targeting anyone doing business with or offering support to Syria’s military, intelligence or other suspect institutions. While the Trump administration has passed temporary waivers on those sanctions, known as the Caesar Act, they can only be permanently repealed by law.
The White House posted the text of the order on X after the signing, which was not open to the press.
The U.S. granted Syria sweeping exemptions from sanctions in May, which was a first step toward fulfilling the Republican president's pledge to lift a half-century of penalties on a country shattered by 13 years of civil war.
Along with the lifting of economic sanctions, Monday’s executive order lifts the national emergency outlined in an executive order issued by former President George W. Bush in response to Syria’s occupation of Lebanon and pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and missile programs, Treasury officials said. Five other previous executive orders related to Syria were also lifted.
Sanctions targeting terrorist groups and manufacturers and sellers of the amphetamine-like stimulant Captagon will remain in place.
Trump met with Syria’s interim leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, in Saudi Arabia in May and told him he would lift sanctions and explore normalizing relations in a major policy shift in relations between the U.S. and Syria.
“This is another promise made and promise kept,” Leavitt said Monday.
The European Union has also followed through with lifting nearly all remaining sanctions on Syria.
Still, some restrictions remain in place. The U.S. still designates Syria as a state sponsor of terrorism and the group led by al-Sharaa as a foreign terrorist organization.
A State Department official said the department is reviewing those designations.
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