What will it take for Syria to win permanent US sanctions relief?

For post-Assad Syria to rebuild after years of conflict, interim President Ahmad Al- Sharaa must obtain full and permanent lifting of restrictions imposed byy the US and other western economies. (AFP/File)
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Updated 08 June 2025
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What will it take for Syria to win permanent US sanctions relief?

  • Temporary relief already available, but a lasting end to sanctions depends on several steps, experts say
  • They say that without deep reforms and sustained diplomacy, reprieve could be short lived

LONDON: After 13 years of war and international isolation, a glimmer of hope emerged for Syria on May 23 when the US government announced a temporary easing of sanctions, ushering in an opportunity for recovery and reconstruction.

But Syrian officials warn the relief may be short-lived. Without the full and permanent lifting of restrictions, they say, the door to recovery could close just as quickly as it opened, especially with fresh conditions now attached.

Syria’s interim government, led by President Ahmad Al-Sharaa, must navigate multiple US demands, from expelling foreign militants to integrating Kurdish forces and verifying the destruction of chemical weapons.




Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa has in six months established himself internationally and had crippling sanctions removed, but still needs to rebuild national institutions, revive the economy and unite the fractured country. (AFP/File)

The road to full sanctions relief is further complicated by political realities in Washington, where a divided Congress remains largely opposed to reengaging with Damascus.

“There is considerable disappointment in Damascus that sanctions are only being suspended temporarily and not definitively,” Joshua Landis, director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma, told Arab News.

“But many of the sanctions were imposed by Congress and will have to be lifted by Congress.”

Following President Donald Trump’s announcement at the Gulf Cooperation Council summit in Riyadh, where he offered Syria “a fresh start” by removing sanctions, the Treasury Department issued General License 25, temporarily suspending key restrictions.




A handout picture provided by the Saudi Royal Palace shows US President Donald Trump (L), Secretary of State Marco Rubio (2nd L), Syria's interim president Ahmed Al-Sharaa (R), Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (C) and Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan (2nd R) meeting in Riyadh on May 14, 2025. (AFP/File)

The Treasury said relief was conditional on Syria denying safe haven to terrorist groups and protecting religious and ethnic minorities.

Parallel to this, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced a 180-day Caesar Act waiver to enable humanitarian aid to enter Syria and help restore essential services like electricity, water, and sanitation.

FAST FACTS

• Western sanctions began in 1979 and expanded sharply after 2011 in response to Bashar Assad’s crackdown on protests.

• Arms embargoes and dual-use controls remain, and new targeted sanctions have been imposed on human rights abusers.

• In May, the US and EU lifted most economic sanctions after Assad’s ouster and the formation of a transitional government.

This relief marked the first phase of a broader US strategy aimed at pushing Syria’s interim government to meet a series of sweeping demands.

A US official told AFP that while some Trump administration officials support immediate sanctions relief, others prefer a phased approach, making broader actions conditional on Syria meeting specific targets.

This shift reflects a broader recalibration of Western expectations. “With the fall of the Assad regime, the US and its European allies have clearly stepped back from the demands they once directed at Damascus,” Syrian-Canadian analyst Camille Otrakji told Arab News.

“US Vice President JD Vance has repeatedly stated that his country will not promote democracy anymore. The new priority is stability, seen as a foundation for regional development and future peace agreements.”




People celebrate in Damascus' Omeyyad Square after US President Donald Trump's decision to lift sanctions in Syria, on May 13, 2025. (AFP/File)

As part of that shift, Washington’s earlier insistence on compliance with UN Security Council Resolution 2254 — adopted in 2015 to guide Syria’s democratic transition — has largely faded. In its place, Otrakji said, are more focused and immediate goals.

These include “removing foreign fighters from the Syrian army, and possibly from Syria as a whole, reaching a settlement with the Kurds, and reducing violence against Alawite communities in the coastal region,” he added.

Yet even these goals appear increasingly flexible. On June 2, the US gave its approval to a Syrian government plan to integrate thousands of foreign fighters into the national army, as long as the process remains transparent, Reuters reported.

Despite the evolving benchmarks, progress is underway. Landis explained that Al-Sharaa is already working to fulfill US demands, including the removal of Palestinian militants.

“Al-Sharaa has arrested or expelled the top Palestinian militia leaders and militants living in Syria,” Landis said.

Leaders of pro-Iran Palestinian factions allied with the Assad regime have left Syria under pressure from the new authorities, handing over their weapons as part of a broader US demand to curb Iran-backed groups, two Palestinian sources told AFP on May 23.

Syria is also under pressure to integrate the US-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces into the national military and take responsibility for prisons and camps holding thousands of Daesh fighters and their families.




In March, Syria’s President Ahmad Al-Sharaa and SDF chief Mazloum Abdi signed an agreement to integrate the civil and military institutions of the autonomous Kurdish administration in the northeast into the national government. (AFP/File)

“Securing Daesh detention centers will require coordination with the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria and the SDF,” Landis said. “The effort to find a compromise with US-backed Kurdish forces continues, despite some important differences.

“Two Aleppo neighborhoods were recently turned over by the YPG to Al-Sharaa’s forces. More recently, a prison exchange was negotiated between the new Syrian military and the SDF.”

After Daesh’s 2019 defeat, thousands of suspected affiliates were detained in northeast Syria. The largest camps, Al-Hol and Roj, are run by the Kurdish-led AANES and guarded by the SDF.

Security at the camps is fragile, with the SDF stretched by conflict with Turkish-backed forces and resource shortages. A 2023 Daesh attack on Al-Hasakah prison highlighted the risk of mass escapes.

Aid cuts and a potential US withdrawal from northeast Syria threaten further destabilization, raising fears that thousands of Daesh-affiliated detainees could escape, posing a threat to global security.




A view of Camp Roj in Syria's northeastern Hasakah province, where relatives of Daesh militants are being held. (AFP/File)

Recent developments suggest progress. In March, the Al-Sharaa government reached key agreements with the Kurdish-led administration to integrate the SDF into the national army, place Kurdish-run institutions under central control, and jointly manage Daesh detainees.

The first formal steps followed in May, when Kurdish authorities and Syria’s transitional government agreed on a plan to evacuate Syrians from Al-Hol camp to government-held areas. Previously, repatriations had only been allowed to Kurdish-controlled zones.

In Aleppo, the YPG, which is a component of the SDF, handed over the Sheikh Maqsoud and Achrafieh neighborhoods to the Syrian government. These predominantly Kurdish districts had been under YPG/SDF control since 2015 and remained semi-autonomous even after the Assad government recaptured most of Aleppo in 2016.

Landis said similar negotiations are underway with Druze militias in southern Syria. “Arriving at an agreed-upon solution will take time, and both sides are still debating how integral regional militias will be allowed to remain and how much local authority their commanders will have,” he said.

In the past few months, Syria’s Druze community has faced renewed violence and sectarian tensions, particularly in areas near Damascus like Jaramana and Sahnaya.




Mourners lift a portrait during the funeral of members of Syria's Druze community who were killed in recent sectarian clashes, in Salkhad village in the country's southern Suwayda governorate on May 3, 2025. (AFP/File)

In late April, a fake audio recording triggered sectarian violence in the Damascus suburbs of Jaramana and Sahnaya. Clashes between Druze militias, Sunni groups, and government forces left dozens of civilians dead. Human rights monitors reported extrajudicial killings by government-affiliated units.

Although local ceasefires and Druze police deployments have eased tensions in some areas, mistrust runs deep. The Druze community continues to demand greater autonomy and security guarantees, resisting government disarmament efforts amid fears of future attacks.

Concerns have been amplified by sectarian killings targeting the Alawite community, particularly along Syria’s coast. Between March and April, armed groups — including some tied to the transitional government — reportedly executed Alawite civilians and torched their homes.




People march in Syria's northeastern city of Qamishli on March 11, 2025 to protest the wave of sectarian violence targeting the Alawite minority in the west of the country. (AFP/File)

On May 28, the EU sanctioned two individuals and three groups accused of carrying out the attacks. While the EU has announced plans to lift sanctions, foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the move was “conditional” and that sanctions could be resumed if Syria’s new government does not keep the peace.

That fragile peace, analysts say, depends largely on how the transitional leadership navigates Syria’s complex social fabric.

“For the new transitional leadership, managing relationships with Syria’s minorities and broader society, each with its own aspirations, will be essential to stabilizing the country and permanently lifting the threat of renewed US sanctions,” said Otrakji.

One of the most delicate challenges, he said, lies in the relationship between Al-Sharaa’s administration and the Alawite community, which held significant power under the Assad regime.

“Establishing a local police or security force may be the only realistic solution to address mutual distrust and security concerns,” Otrakji said.

“A handful of influential Alawite figures are now competing to convince their community, and other relevant actors, that they should play the leading role in protecting and representing Alawite interests.”

As Al-Sharaa struggles to assert control, fears of renewed civil war persist. US Secretary of State Rubio warned in late May that Syria could be only weeks away from “potential collapse and a full-scale civil war of epic proportions.”

Progressing to the next phase of US relief will require Syria to normalize relations with Israel by joining the Abraham Accords.




Israeli troops deploy at the buffer zone that separates the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights from Syria, on December 9, 2024, near the Druze village of Majdal Shams. (AFP/File)

The Abraham Accords are a series of diplomatic agreements brokered by the US in 2020, normalizing relations between Israel and several Arab states, including the UAE, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco.

The accords marked a significant shift in Middle East diplomacy, promoting cooperation despite the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Their potential has been undermined, however, by public outcry over the war in Gaza.

Al-Sharaa has publicly signaled openness to diplomacy. “Al-Sharaa has reiterated his interest in arriving at a peaceful settlement with Israel,” said Landis. “He has made a trust-building gesture by handing over the papers of the celebrated Israeli spy Eli Cohen.”

The Syrian leadership reportedly approved last month’s return of 2,500 documents related to Cohen and his personal belongings. The Israeli spy was executed in Damascus in 1965. The archive, held by Syrian intelligence for six decades, included his letters, will, passports, and surveillance photos.

“Word is that Al-Sharaa has also been trying to reach out to Israel through the US to establish talks,” Landis said.


READ MORE

Israel says retrieved official Syrian archive on executed spy Eli Cohen

• Syria and Israel in direct talks focused on security, sources say


Despite Syrian statements seeking peace, Israel remains cautious. Since Assad’s fall, it has conducted hundreds of airstrikes across Syria and seized control of a UN-monitored buffer zone inside Syrian territory.

Taking advantage of the power vacuum left by Assad’s ouster, Israeli troops advanced up to 15 km into Syrian territory, establishing a “zone of control” and a deeper “sphere of influence” reaching as far as 60 km east, particularly in the southern provinces of Quneitra and Daraa.

In recent months, the Israeli military has established at least nine new outposts and bases, including on Mount Hermon and within the former UN Disengagement Observer Force buffer zone. Israeli troops have also occupied several Syrian villages, including Al-Kiswa, Al-Bakar, Sidon Al-Golan, Sidon Al-Hanout and Al-Adnaniyah.

Still, some see potential for reconciliation. “The majority of Syrians want to have peace at home, and they want to have peace in the neighborhood,” Ibrahim Al-Assil, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, told CNN.

“The issue with Israel is indeed complicated, but it’s not impossible to resolve the issue of the Golan Heights, the issue of the borders, the concerns of both sides are deep and real and serious,” he said.  

“That means there is a potential for these talks, and there is a potential for having better relationships on both sides, the Israeli side and the Syrian side, and that require both sides to start a long journey of negotiations between both of them, and to believe that a better relationship is possible between both of them.”

Ghassan Ibrahim, founder of the Global Arab Network, believes the real test for Al-Sharaa’s government will be reconstruction.




For post-Assad Syria to rebuild after years of conflict, interim President Ahmad Al-Sharaa must obtain full and permanent lifting of restrictions imposed by the US and other western economies. (AFP/File)

“The key now is how the government handles the opportunities it’s being given — politically, regionally, internationally, and with sanctions relief,” he told Arab News.

“Will reconstruction be piecemeal, with companies simply seizing contracts, or will it be comprehensive?”

The London-based Syria analyst added: “Ideally, reconstruction should create opportunities for businesses, rebuild infrastructure, improve quality of life, and promote stability — ultimately encouraging refugees to return.

“These are the things that will be judged moving forward.”
 

 


Iranians told to use less water as heatwave worsens shortages

Updated 20 July 2025
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Iranians told to use less water as heatwave worsens shortages

  • Iranian authorities have urged residents to limit water consumption as the country grapples with severe shortages amid an ongoing heatwave, local media said Sunday

TEHRAN: Iranian authorities have urged residents to limit water consumption as the country grapples with severe shortages amid an ongoing heatwave, local media said Sunday.
Water scarcity is a major issue in Iran, particularly in arid provinces in the country’s south, with shortages blamed on mismanagement and overexploitation of underground resources as well as the growing impact of climate change.
On Saturday, the national meteorological service said Iran was experiencing its hottest week of the year so far, with temperatures exceeding 50C in some areas.
“People should conserve water to avoid drops in pressure,” said Tehran city council chair Mehdi Chamran, according to the ISNA news agency.
Authorities across Iran have issued similar appeals in recent days, asking residents in several provinces to limit water usage.
Tehran’s provincial water management company called to reduce usage by “at least 20 percent” to help ease the shortages.
In a statement, it said that “the reservoirs of the dams supplying water to Tehran are currently at their lowest level in a century” following years of steady decline in rainfall.
Javan, a conservative newspaper, reported on Saturday that authorities had reduced water pressure in parts of the capital in a bid to mitigate the crisis, resulting in “water outages lasting between 12 and 18 hours” in some areas.


Egypt uncovers Brotherhood-linked plot to target security and economic facilities: ministry

Updated 20 July 2025
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Egypt uncovers Brotherhood-linked plot to target security and economic facilities: ministry

  • Egypt’s Interior Ministry said Hasm plotted to push one of its fugitive members to infiltrate the country to target security and economic facilities

CAIRO: The Egyptian interior ministry on Sunday said it has uncovered a plot by the armed wing of the Muslim Brotherhood group aiming to target security and economic facilities.

According to a press statement by Egypt’s Interior Ministry, elements who plotted the attacks were linked to the so-called Hasm Movement, which was affiliated with the banned Muslim Brotherhood.

The ministry said it has information that the militant group was planning to revive their activities in Egypt and commit hostile operations. Hasm plotted to push one of its fugitive members to infiltrate the country via a border state in order to commit “hostile operations targeting security and economic facilities in Egypt,” it added. 

The statement said Egypt’s National Security sector was able to identify the Hasm leaders behind the plan. It also reported that some members of Hasm were targeted in a security operation in Cairo’s Boulaq neighborhood. 

It said when security forces raided their militant hideout, the suspects began firing randomly at the forces and the area surrounding the building, prompting the forces to deal with them. 

The exchange of fire killed two militants and a citizen, who happened to be passing by and had succumbed to his injuries as a result of the random militant gunfire.

A police officer was also injured while trying to rescue the citizen.

The ministry revealed that this coincided with the movement’s latest video on social media, showing its members training in a desert area of a neighboring country, while threatening to carry out terrorist attacks in Egypt. 

The group is labelled as a terrorist entity in both the United Kingdom and the United States.


Israel orders civilians out of central Gaza ahead of new campaign

Updated 13 min 30 sec ago
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Israel orders civilians out of central Gaza ahead of new campaign

  • The military’s Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee said in a post on X that residents and displaced Palestinians sheltering in the Deir el-Balah area should evacuate immediately

GAZA: The Israeli military on Sunday issued an evacuation order for Palestinians in the central Gaza Strip, warning of imminent action against Hamas militants in an area “where it has not operated before.”

The military’s Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee said in a post on X that residents and displaced Palestinians sheltering in the Deir el-Balah area should evacuate immediately.

Israel was “expanding its activities” around Deir el-Balah, including “in an area where it has not operated before,” Adraee said, telling Palestinians to “move south toward the Al-Mawasi area” on the Mediterranean coast “for your safety.”

Most of Gaza’s population of more than two million people have been displaced at least once during the war, which is now in its 22nd month, with repeated Israeli evacuation calls covering large parts of the coastal territory.

The UN humanitarian agency OCHA said in January that more than 80 percent of the Gaza Strip was under unrevoked Israeli evacuation orders.

Families of hostages held in Gaza since October 7, 2023 said they feared the expansion of the Israeli offensive could harm their loved ones.

In a statement released by a campaign group, they called for Israeli authorities to “urgently explain to Israeli citizens and families what the fighting plan is and how exactly it protects the abductees who are still in Gaza.”

On the ground, Gaza’s civil defense agency told AFP on Sunday that Israeli strikes overnight killed at least seven people in Gaza City and in parts of the territory’s south.

Delegations from Israel and militant group Hamas have spent the last two weeks in indirect talks for a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza and the release of 10 living hostages.

Of the 251 hostages taken during in 2023, 49 are still being held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.

Families rallied in Israel’s economic hub of Tel Aviv on Saturday, calling on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump to secure the return of the captives and end the war.

Meanwhile a military statement said Israeli forces had stepped up ground operations in the Jabalia area of northern Gaza, killing “dozens of terrorists” and dismantling “hundreds of terrorist infrastructure.”

“Underground terror tunnels” in the area stretching 2.7 kilometers (just over 1.5 miles) some 20 meters underground were located and dismantled, it said.

Israeli’s military offensive on Gaza has killed at least 58,765 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to Hamas-run Gaza’s health ministry.


‘No life without water’: settler attacks threaten West Bank communities

Updated 20 min 29 sec ago
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‘No life without water’: settler attacks threaten West Bank communities

  • Israeli settlers recently attacked the system of wells, pumps and pipelines of the Ein Samiyah spring
  • The damage to Ein Samiyah’s water facilities was not an isolated incident

KAFR MALIK, Palestinian Territories: From his monitoring station on a remote hill in the occupied West Bank, water operator Subhil Olayan keeps watch over a lifeline for Palestinians, the Ein Samiyah spring.

So when Israeli settlers recently attacked the system of wells, pumps and pipelines he oversees, he knew the stakes.

“There is no life without water, of course,” he said, following the attack which temporarily cut off the water supply to nearby villages.

The spring, which feeds the pumping station, is the main or backup water source for some 110,000 people, according to the Palestinian company that manages it – making it one of the most vital in the West Bank, where water is in chronic short supply.

The attack is one of several recent incidents in which settlers have been accused of damaging, diverting or seizing control of Palestinian water sources.

“The settlers came and the first thing they did was break the pipeline. And when the pipeline is broken, we automatically have to stop pumping” water to nearby villages, some of which exclusively rely on the Ein Samiyah spring.

“The water just goes into the dirt, into the ground,” Olayan said, adding that workers immediately fixed the damage to resume water supply.

Just two days after the latest attack, Israeli settlers – some of them armed – splashed in pools just below the spring, while Olayan monitored water pressure and cameras from a distance.

His software showed normal pressure in the pipes pulling water from the wells and the large pipe carrying water up the hill to his village of Kafr Malik.

But he said maintenance teams dared not venture down to the pumping station out of fear for their safety.

Since the start of the war in Gaza, deadly settler attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank have become commonplace.

Last week, settlers beat a 20-year-old dual US citizen to death in the nearby village of Sinjil, prompting US ambassador Mike Huckabee to urge Israel to “aggressively investigate” the killing.

Issa Qassis, chairman on the board of the Jerusalem Water Undertaking, which manages the Ein Samiyah spring, said he viewed the attacks as a tool for Israeli land grabs and annexation.

“When you restrict water supply in certain areas, people simply move where water is available,” he said at a press conference.

“So in a plan to move people to other lands, water is the best and fastest way,” he said.

Since the start of the war in Gaza, several Israeli politicians and officials have become increasingly vocal in support of annexing the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967.

Most prominent among them is Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, himself a settler, who said in November that 2025 would be the year Israel applies its sovereignty over the Palestinian territory.

Qassis accused Israel’s government of supporting settler attacks such as the one on Ein Samiyah.

The Israeli army said that soldiers were not aware of the incident in which pipes were damaged, “and therefore were unable to prevent it.”

The damage to Ein Samiyah’s water facilities was not an isolated incident.

In recent months, settlers in the nearby Jordan Valley took control of the Al-Auja spring by diverting its water from upstream, said Farhan Ghawanmeh, a representative of the Ras Ein Al Auja community.

He said two other springs in the area had also recently been taken over.

In Dura Al-Qaraa, another West Bank village that uses the Ein Samiyah spring as a back-up water source, residents are also concerned about increasingly long droughts and the way Israel regulates their water rights.

“For years now, no one has been planting because the water levels have decreased,” said Rafeaa Qasim, a member of the village council, citing lower rainfall causing the land to be “basically abandoned.”

Qasim said that though water shortages in the village have existed for 30 years, residents’ hands are tied in the face of this challenge.

“We have no options; digging a well is not allowed,” despite the presence of local water springs, he said, pointing to a well project that the UN and World Bank rejected due to Israeli law prohibiting drilling in the area.

The lands chosen for drilling sit in the West Bank’s Area C, which covers more than 60 percent of the territory and is under full Israeli control.

Israeli NGO B’Tselem reported in 2023 that the legal system led to sharp disparities in water access within the West Bank between Palestinians and Israelis.

Whereas nearly all residents of Israel and Israeli settlements have running water every day, only 36 percent of West Bank Palestinians do, the report said.

In Dura Al-Qaraa, Qasim fears for the future.

“Each year, the water decreases and the crisis grows – it’s not getting better, it’s getting worse.”


Syria interior ministry says Sweida clashes have ‘halted’

Updated 20 July 2025
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Syria interior ministry says Sweida clashes have ‘halted’

  • Violence between the Druze and Bedouin groups that began on July 13 has left an estimated 940 dead

DAMASCUS: Tribal fighters have been evacuated from Syria’s southern city of Sweida and violent clashes have ceased, the country’s interior ministry said late Saturday.

“After intensive efforts by the Ministry of Interior to implement the ceasefire agreement, following the deployment of its forces in the northern and western regions of Sweida Governorate, the city of Sweida was evacuated of all tribal fighters, and clashes within the city’s neighborhoods were halted,” interior ministry spokesman Noureddine Al-Baba said in a post on Telegram.

In Washington, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called on the Syrian government’s security forces to prevent “jihadists from entering and ”carrying out massacres“ in the conflict-stricken south of the country.

”If authorities in Damascus want to preserve any chance of achieving a unified, inclusive and peaceful Syria... they must help end this calamity by using their security forces to prevent Daesh and any other violent terrorists from entering the area and carrying out massacres,“ Rubio said in a statement posted to X.

Sectarian clashes between armed Bedouin forces and the Druze in the community’s Sweida heartland had drawn in Syria’s Islamist-led government, Israel and other armed tribes.

US-brokered negotiations have sought to avert further Israeli military intervention, with Syrian forces agreeing to withdraw from the region.

“The US has remained heavily involved over the last three days with Israel, Jordan and authorities in Damascus on the horrifying & dangerous developments in southern Syria,” Rubio said.

He called for the Syrian government to “hold accountable and bring to justice anyone guilty of atrocities including those in their own ranks.”

“Furthermore the fighting between Druze and Bedouin groups inside the perimeter must also stop immediately,” Rubio added.

Once in control of large swathes of Syria, the Daesh was territorially defeated in Syria in 2019 largely due to the efforts of Kurdish-led forces supported by an international coalition.

Violence between the Druze and Bedouin groups that began on July 13 has left an estimated 940 dead, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor.

The count included 326 Druze fighters and 262 Druze civilians, 165 of whom were summarily executed, according to the Observatory.

The monitor also included 312 government security personnel and 21 Sunni Bedouin in the toll.