US special envoy calls for repeal of sanctions on Syria

ISTANBUL

The US special envoy for Syria on Monday called for the US House of Representatives to do its part to repeal sanctions on Syria dating back to the years of the Assad regime.

“The U.S. Senate has already demonstrated foresight by voting to repeal the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act – a sanctions regime that served its moral purpose against the previous, treacherous Assad regime but now suffocates a nation seeking to rebuild,” Tom Barrack, who also serves as US ambassador to Türkiye, said on US social media company X.

“To repeal Caesar is not to forget history, it is to shape it anew, replacing the lexicon of retribution with the language of renewal,” he said.

Noting previous steps by US President Donald Trump and the Senate towards ending the sanctions, Barrack said the House of Representatives should “complete the act of statesmanship” and repeal the Caesar Act to restore to the Syrian people the “right to work, to trade, and to hope.”

Saying the 2019 passage of the Caesar Act was “the moral instrument of that moment,” when Assad was still in power, Barrack called Trump’s announcement this May that he would lift sanctions on Syria a “historic pivot from coercion to cooperation.”

“That promise became policy on June 30, when an Executive Order formally revoked most Syria sanctions … These twin actions transformed U.S. policy from punishment to partnership, signaling to investors and allies alike that America now stood for rebuilding, not restraining,” he said.

2019 Caesar Act

Despite recent easing measures, Syria is seeking the permanent lifting of US sanctions that remain in effect. Much of the sanctions stem from the 2019 Caesar Act, which sanctioned the Assad government for war crimes during the civil war.

Trump issued an executive order on June 30 to terminate the US sanctions program on Syria, though sanctions tied to human rights violations, chemical weapons activity, and drug trafficking remain.

The move followed Trump’s May announcement that he would lift the “brutal and crippling” Syria sanctions. One day later, he held a landmark meeting in Saudi Arabia with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa, the first between US and Syrian leaders in 25 years.

Bashar Assad, who ruled Syria for nearly a quarter century, fled to Russia last December, marking the end of the Baath Party’s decades-long rule, which began in 1963.