US lawmakers advance repeal of Syria sanctions
Shafaq News – Washington
US lawmakers are moving to roll back key sanctions on Syria, a shift the Syrian American Council (SAC) welcomed on Thursday as a sign of growing confidence in the country’s transitional leadership.
SAC is a US-based advocacy organization focused on Syria policy and engagement with Syrian communities.
Alberto Hernandez, the Council’s Grassroots Advocacy Officer, told Shafaq News that recent developments on Capitol Hill — including several congressional visits to Damascus — have produced positive assessments of Syria’s new direction and opened space for cooperation on counterterrorism and counternarcotics.
He pointed to the reversal by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast, who now plans to authorize the repeal of the Caesar Act, describing the move as “the correct step” in aligning US policy with developments on the ground.
According to SAC, similar momentum is building in the Senate, where Senators Jeanne Shaheen, Markwayne Mullin, and Joni Ernst — all of whom visited transitional President Ahmad Al-Sharaa this summer — have introduced S.3172. The bill seeks to repeal sanctions frameworks established in 2003 and 2012, including the Syria Accountability Act and the Syria Human Rights Accountability Act, following efforts to unwind the Trump-Biden Caesar sanctions regime.
“These laws were designed to pressure a regime that no longer exists,” Hernandez told Shafaq News, adding that Syria’s new leadership is working to stabilize the country and rebuild relations with regional and international partners.
He said SAC expects the final National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to include reporting metrics to assess progress and is optimistic that Syria’s new government will meet and exceed those expectations while continuing what he described as a positive trajectory. He added that the organization remains focused on unwinding the multi-layered sanctions architecture that accumulated under four successive administrations.
The SAC official indicated that the council expects the full text of the NDAA to be released in the second week of December. The bill must then pass both chambers and be signed by the President by year’s end as part of the annual legislative process. He noted that the Caesar Act repeal appears in the Senate version, while any issues in the House were technical rather than political.
For Shafaq News, Mostafa Hashem, Washington D.C.
