
Trump vowed to ease sanctions on Syria. How quickly that happens is up for debate.
Advertisement
Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa, the former militant commander who led the overthrow, says he is working to build an inclusive government friendly to the West. Some Trump administration officials are pushing to lift or waive sanctions as fast as possible without demanding tough conditions first.
Get Starting Point
A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday.
Enter Email
Sign Up
Others in the administration have proposed a phased approach, giving short-term waivers soon on some sanctions and then tying extensions or a wider executive order to Syria meeting conditions, which 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.
'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.
Advertisement
The administration is 'currently analyzing the optimal way to do so' and would have an announcement soon, Bluestein said in a statement Thursday to The Associated Press.
A State Department proposal circulated among officials after Trump's pledge on his Middle East trip last week lays out sweeping conditions for future phases of relief or permanent lifting of sanctions, including dismantling Palestinian militant groups as a top demand, according to a senior U.S. official familiar with the plan, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Additional proposals are circulating, including one shared this week that broadly emphasized taking all the action possible, as fast as possible, to help Syria rebuild, the official said.
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 the cessation of sanctions against Syria in order to give them a chance at greatness.'
'We're taking them all off,' Trump said a day before meeting the country's new leader. 'Good luck, Syria. Show us something special.'
This week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio advocated for a hedged approach in testimony before U.S. lawmakers.
Rubio pushed for sanctions relief to start quickly, saying Syria's five-month-old 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.'
Washington has levied sanctions against Syria's former ruling family since 1979 over its support for Hezbollah and other Iranian-allied militant groups, its alleged chemical weapons program and its brutality against civilians as the Assad family fought to stay in power.
Advertisement
The sanctions include heavy 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 for 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 would allow Trump to quickly remove many of the sanctions.
Trump's move to lift the penalties is aimed at 'preventing a failed state and ending perpetual violence,' but some in the administration are trying to 'water down' the decision, Moustafa asserted.
Debate within the Trump administration
The initial document sent out last week by the State Department's policy and planning staff proposed a three-phase road map for sanctions relief, starting with short-term waivers. Progress toward additional relief and an outright lifting of penalties in future phases would be tied to tough conditions that generated pushback from some officials.
Advertisement
Removing 'Palestinian terror groups' from Syria is first on the list of requirements to get to the second phase. Supporters of sanctions relief say the 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 in northeast Syria and to carry out a recent deal with the U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces — which manages the detention facilities — that includes the SDF being incorporated 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 all of 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
While some of the sanctions can be lifted by executive action, others face a more complex process.
The most difficult could be the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act, a wide-reaching set of sanctions passed by Congress in 2019 in response to alleged war crimes by Assad's government.
It specifically blocks reconstruction activities, 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.
Advertisement
In a meeting last week in Turkey with Syria's foreign minister, Rubio and Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham explained that they supported Trump's call to ease sanctions immediately but that 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.'
Sewell reported from Beirut. AP Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Washington Post
9 minutes ago
- Washington Post
Fulbright board resigns over alleged Trump administration interference
The entire 12-person board tasked with overseeing the State Department's Fulbright Program resigned Wednesday, claiming political interference from the Trump administration. In a statement posted on the board's Substack, the congressionally mandated Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board said its members voted 'overwhelmingly' to resign from the board 'rather than endorse unprecedented actions that we believe are impermissible under the law, compromise U.S. national interests and integrity, and undermine the mission and mandates Congress established for the Fulbright program nearly 80 years ago.'


New York Times
10 minutes ago
- New York Times
Gaza Aid Group Says Hamas Attacked Its Palestinian Workers
An aid group in Gaza backed by Israel and the United States said that on Wednesday night a bus carrying some of its Palestinian workers was attacked by Hamas, leaving at least five people dead and others injured. At the time of the attack, the bus was carrying about two dozen of the group's workers and was en route to an aid distribution site in southern Gaza, according to a statement from the group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Some of the workers 'may have been taken hostage,' it said, adding that it was still gathering information. 'We condemn this heinous and deliberate attack in the strongest possible terms,' said the foundation, which is run by American contractors. 'These were aid workers. Humanitarians. Fathers, brothers, sons, and friends, who were risking their lives every day to help others.' The New York Times could not independently verify the attack. Hamas did not comment on the accusation that it had attacked workers from the group, and the Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The foundation said it held the militant group 'fully responsible' for the deaths of 'dedicated workers who have been distributing humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people.' The group called on the international community to condemn Hamas for the attack. 'Tonight, the world must see this for what it is: an attack on humanity,' it said. The aid organization has repeatedly criticized Hamas, saying that for days it had 'openly' threatened workers and civilians. On Saturday, the foundation said it was 'impossible to proceed' with aid distribution because Hamas had menaced its staff. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.


New York Times
10 minutes ago
- New York Times
Pentagon Is Reviewing Deal to Equip Australia With Nuclear Submarines
The Trump administration is reviewing whether a security pact between the United States, Britain and Australia meant to equip Australia with nuclear submarines is 'aligned with the president's America First agenda,' a U.S. defense official said on Wednesday. When the deal was reached under President Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s administration in 2021, it was billed as crucial for countering China's growing military influence in the Asia Pacific. Now, its review appears to reinforce President Trump's skeptical and transactional approach to longstanding alliances, including demands that allies spend more on their own defense. The Pentagon official said the review would ensure that the pact, known as Aukus, met 'common-sense, America First criteria,' including ensuring that U.S. forces are at 'the highest readiness,' that allies are doing their part, and that 'the defense industrial base is meeting our needs.' The review was first reported by The Financial Times. Australia's defense minister, Richard Marles, said both Australia and Britain had been notified about the review and that all three nations were still committed to the deal. 'We've been aware of this for some time. We welcome it,' Mr. Marles said in a radio interview with ABC Melbourne on Thursday, Australia time. 'It's something which is perfectly natural for an incoming administration to do.' Australia sees the Aukus agreement as central to its defense strategy in the coming decades in a region increasingly shaped by China's assertive military posturing. Nuclear submarines can travel much farther without detection than conventional ones can and would enable the Australian Navy to greatly extend its reach. Under the pact, Australia is scheduled to receive secondhand Virginia-class nuclear submarines from the United States in the 2030s while scaling up the capacity to build its own, using a British design. But there has been concern in both Washington and Canberra about whether the United States can build new submarines to replenish its fleet quickly enough for the older ones to be transferred to Australia. Elbridge Colby, the U.S. under secretary of defense for policy, said during his Senate confirmation hearing in March that he was skeptical about the pragmatic feasibility of the deal. The Financial Times reported that Mr. Colby was heading up the Pentagon review. 'So if we can produce the attack submarines in sufficient number and sufficient speed, then great,' Mr. Colby said at the hearing. 'But if we can't, that becomes a very difficult problem.' Even before the review was announced, concern and anxiety had been building in Australia over whether it could continue to depend on its longstanding relationship with the United States, given the Trump administration's treatment of allies. Mr. Marles, the Australian defense minister, said in the radio interview that he was confident the Aukus deal would proceed because 'it's in the interests of the United States to continue to work with Australia.' Michael D. Shear contributed reporting from Washington.