- US
lawmakers seek rollback of Syria sanctions. - Syrian
American Council welcomes this move. - Sign
of confidence in Syria’s leadership.
SAC is an advocacy group with headquarters in the UnitedStates that focuses on Syrian politics and interaction with Syrian populations.
The Council’s Grassroots Advocacy Officer, Alberto
Hernandez, told that recent events on Capitol Hill, such as multiple
congressional visits to Damascus, have led to favorable evaluations of Syria’s
new course and created opportunities for collaboration on counterterrorism and
counternarcotics.
He cited the flip of House Foreign Affairs Committee
Chairman Brian Mast, who now intends to approve the repeal of the Caesar Act,
calling it “the correct step” in bringing US policy into line with
local circumstances.
SAC claims that comparable momentum is developing in the
Senate, where S.3172 has been submitted by Senators Jeanne Shaheen, Markwayne
Mullin, and Joni Ernst, who all visited interim President Ahmad Al-Sharaa this
summer. In an attempt to undo the Trump-Biden Caesar sanctions system, the
measure aims to abolish sanctions regimes created in 2003 and 2012, including
the Syria Accountability Act and the Syria Human Rights Accountability Act.
Hernandez stated that Syria’s new government is attempting
to stabilize the nation and mend ties with regional and international allies.
“These laws were designed to pressure a regime that no longer
exists,”
Hernandez said.
He stated that SAC is hopeful that Syria’s new
administration would achieve and surpass these expectations while maintaining
what he called a favorable trajectory, and that the final National Defense
Authorization Act (NDAA) will contain reporting metrics to measure success. The
group is still committed to dismantling the multi-layered sanctions
infrastructure that was built up under four different governments, he
continued.
According to the SAC source, the council anticipates the
publishing of the NDAA’s whole text around the second week of December. As part
of the yearly legislative process, the bill must then pass both chambers and be
approved by the president by the end of the year.
How will the sanctions rollback affect humanitarian aid
access in Syria?
The rollback of crucial US warrants on Syria,
via Trump’s June 2025 Administrative Order and advancing congressional
legislation, will significantly ameliorate philanthropic aid access
by easing broad profitable restrictions that preliminarily hindered
delivery despite immunity.
Previous warrants caused overcompliance by banks,
delaying fund transfers and remittances critical for aid operations; lifting
them restores Syria’s access to global fiscal systems, speeding
exigency responses( e.g.,post-earthquake aid).
Trade walls on food, drug, energy, and
reconstruction accoutrements ( e.g., for hospitals seminaries) lift,
addressing dearths and price hikes affecting 16.5 million demanding
aid; energy warrants junking ensures electricity/ energy for aid
logistics. Enables early recovery/ tone- reliance enterprise(
e.g., structure rebuild), reducing reliance on exigency aid
amid 90 poverty rates.
