US Senate votes to lift biting sanctions on Syria following Assad's ouster

WASHINGTON

The US Senate has approved the removal of some of the most comprehensive American sanctions on Syria as imposed on the country during the rule of Bashar al-Assad, Syria's long-standing leader who was ousted last December.

The action was taken Thursday evening when the chamber passed a comprehensive annual defense policy bill known as the NDAA that included the repeal of the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act of 2019. The law, signed by President Donald Trump during his first term, imposed sanctions on Damascus for gross human rights abuses during the country's 13-year civil war.

It imposed sweeping sanctions on Syrian individuals and institutions and mandated financial penalties on those who provided the Syrian government or its representatives with significant support, transactions, services, or goods.

"Grateful the Senate has passed a REPEAL of the Caesar Act as part of the NDAA!" Republican Representative Joe Wilson wrote on American social media platform X. "These very severe sanctions were imposed on a regime which, thankfully, no longer exists. Syria’s success now depends on FULL & TOTAL repeal."

The NDAA was passed with sweeping approval – 77 to 20 – in the 100-member chamber. It will now be taken up by what is known as a joint conference in which representatives from the Senate and House of Representatives will meet to hammer out differences between the two versions of the bill that they approved.

After Assad’s ouster last December from his 24 years in power, he fled to Russia, marking the end of Syria’s decades of Baath Party rule. A transitional administration headed by President Ahmad al-Sharaa took office in January.