US President Donald Trump has announced that he will lift American economic sanctions on Syria in a shock pronouncement following a meeting with the country’s leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa.
Confirming the major policy shift in Saudi Arabia – as part of a tour of state visits in the Gulf –Trump said: “I will be ordering the cessation of sanctions against Syria in order to give them a chance at greatness.
“It's their time to shine. We're taking them all off. Good luck Syria, show us something very special.”
The move came following a meeting in Riyadh between Trump, Al-Sharaa, Turkey’s President Erdoğan and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman.
Washington first placed sanctions on Syria in 2004 but ratcheted them up in 2011 at the outbreak of the country’s civil war and the brutal suppression of the Syrian Revolution by then-president Bashar Al-Assad.
Since then, measures have steadily increased to include a total ban on Syrian government officials and a prohibition of petroleum exports to the country in order to, according to the US State Department, “deprive the regime of the resources it needs to continue violence against civilians”.
The effect on the Syrian economy has been crippling, with the nation’s GDP falling from around $67 billion in 2011 to an estimated $12 billion in 2021.
However, since the overthrow of the Iran-backed Assad by Al-Sharaa’s Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) faction – formerly the offshoot of Al Qaeda in Syria – last December, Damascus’ foreign policy has undergone a drastic reversal.
Al-Sharaa has seemingly all but cut ties with Tehran and has largely closed off the flow of weapons through his country to Iranian proxies like the Houthis in Yemen and Hamas in Gaza.
At the same time, he has adopted a more overtly pro-Western stance and sought to align more closely with Nato members Turkey – all, reportedly, with the goal of getting the sanctions lifted.
That was also a key priority for both Saudi Arabia and Qatar – the next stop on Trump’s tour – both of which are looking to invest heavily in the Syrian reconstruction.
Indeed, Doha recently announced that, with US approval, it would bankroll a 400 per cent pay increase for Syrian civil servants (who saw swinging pay cuts under Assad) with a $29 million cash injection.
Elsewhere though, the announcement and, significantly, the presence of Erdoğan at the meeting is likely to cause concern in Jerusalem given its strained relationship with the Turkish leader.
In march this year, Erdoğan drew rebuke from Israel and its allies for calling for the destruction of the Jewish state altogether and officials are understood to have voiced reservations about allowing Syria to fall under Turkey’s influence.
The move is also indicative of another trend said to be a source of worry for Israel: that the US is willing to conduct significant Middle East deals without its key regional ally in the room. The lifting of sanctions, the process of the Iran nuclear talks and the release of US-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander have all recently been negotiated by the Trump administration, all reportedly without consultation with Jerusalem.
