Trump dismantles Syria sanctions programme

President Donald Trump on Monday formally dismantled US sanctions against Syria, hoping to reintegrate the war-battered country into the global economy as Israel eyes ties with its new leadership.

Trump lifted most sanctions against Syria in May, responding to appeals from Saudi Arabia and Turkiye after former Islamist movement leader Ahmed al-Sharaa ended a half-century of rule by the Assad family.

In an executive order, Trump terminated the "national emergency" in place since 2004 that imposed far-reaching sanctions on Syria, affecting most state-run institutions including the central bank.

"This is in an effort to promote and support the country's path to stability and peace," White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters.

Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani said that President Trump’s termination of the Syria sanctions programme would open “the doors to long-awaited reconstruction and development,” according to a post by the foreign minister on social media platform X.

He said the move would “lift the obstacle” against economic recovery and open the country to the international community.

Brad Smith, the US Treasury Department official in charge of sanctions, said the move "will end the country's isolation from the international financial system, setting the stage for global commerce and galvanising investments from its neighbours in the region as well as from the United States."

The order, released by the White House, said that Syria has been "transformed" since the fall of Assad, including through "positive actions taken by the new Syrian government under President Ahmed al-Sharaa."

The orders still maintain sanctions on elements of the former government, including Bashar al-Assad, who fled to Russia late last year.

Syria recently carried out its first electronic transfer through the international banking system since around the time it descended into a brutal civil war in 2011.

Israel said earlier on Monday that it was interested in normalising ties with Syria as well as Lebanon in an expansion of the so-called "Abraham Accords".

Trump administration officials argued that lifting the sanctions on Syria would better integrate the country into the region.

Israel's intensive attacks on Iran in June opened a "window that has never existed," said Tom Barrack, the US ambassador to Turkey who serves as Trump's pointman on Syria.

"It's an opportunity that we have never, ever seen, and this president's put together a team that can actually get it done," Barrack told reporters.

The United States still classifies Syria as a state sponsor of terrorism, a designation that could take longer to lift and which also severely discourages investment.