President Donald Trump issued an executive order on June 30, lifting U.S. sanctions on Syria. The order repeals five previous executive orders imposing sanctions on Syria, and waives sanctions imposed under the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act, most of which were imposed after 2011 to facilitate ‘regime change’ in Damascus. That change finally occurred when the “former” Al Qaeda leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, until then known as Mohamed al Jolani, and his terrorist gangs swept out of Idlib province down to Damascus, forcing the collapse of the government of Bashar al-Assad.
“It is the policy of the United States to recognize that circumstances that gave rise to the actions taken in the Executive Orders described in section 3(a) of this order, related to the policies and actions of the former regime of Bashar al-Assad, have been transformed by developments over the past 6 months, including the positive actions taken by the new Syrian government under President Ahmed al-Sharaa,” Trump’s EO says, amounting to de facto recognition of the replacement of government. The order will create “a blanket opportunity around all the things we need to turn back on this economy,” U.S. Ambassador to Turkiye and special envoy for Syria Tom Barrack told reporters yesterday, reported Politico.
