The United States has lifted the last of its crippling economic sanctions on Syria after the Treasury Department removed the country from its list of state sponsors of terrorism.
The move was welcomed on Tuesday by Syrian officials, who view it as a crucial step toward reconstruction after the end of the country’s brutal civil war of nearly 14 years.
“Great people of Syria, you have done it again,” President Ahmed al-Sharaa of Syria said, in comments carried by Syrian state media. “Sanctions have been lifted and restrictions removed. I ask God to help us serve you.”
The United States designated Syria a state sponsor of terror in the late 1970s, when the country was ruled by the dictator Hafez al-Assad, largely because of his regime’s support for Palestinian armed groups.
Additional U.S. sanctions were imposed during the rule of Mr. al-Assad’s son and successor, Bashar al-Assad. He was ousted in December 2024, during the civil war, by a coalition of rebel factions led by Mr. al-Sharaa.
The fall of the Assad regime left Syrians optimistic about the country’s economic prospects and hoping for a quick reintegration into the global market under an interim government. Yet that recovery has been slow and bumpy, hampered in part by lingering U.S. sanctions.
In recent months, Syrians have faced high inflation and rising food and fuel prices that have stoked discontent with the government.
The removal of the state sponsor of terror designation on Monday came after a U.S. congressional review process and after Syria joined the Global Coalition to Defeat the Islamic State, according to the State Department. The United States also revoked the terrorism designation for Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a rebel group that was headed by Mr. al-Sharaa and that was previously known as the Al Nusra Front, the State Department said.
The United States had already removed other punitive sanctions that had been imposed on Syria during the civil war.
Last year, during a trip to Saudi Arabia where he met with Mr. al-Sharaa, President Trump announced that his administration would lift sanctions on Syria to give the country “a chance” to rebuild.
In December, Mr. Trump signed a law repealing the 2019 Caesar Act, which imposed severe financial restrictions on Syria’s economy in an effort to hold the Assad government accountable for its atrocities. The act was named after a photographer who had smuggled out images depicting torture in Syrian prisons.
Still, Syrian and foreign businesses and investors have been wary of returning to the country, citing uncertainties over the interim government’s fiscal policies and concerns about security.
Last year, when Syria made its first electronic transfer with a Western bank since the end of the civil war, it was hailed as a key step for the country to rejoin the global banking system. Yet the Syrian economy remains mostly cash based and international credit cards are rarely accepted.
The U.S. special envoy to Syria and Iraq, Tom Barrack, said on Monday that the rescinding of the state sponsor of terror designation was “another decisive step in Syria’s remarkable journey from isolation to partnership, and from a source of terrorism to a committed partner in the global fight against it.”
“For too long, this designation was another wall separating the Syrian people from the investment, enterprise, and opportunity necessary to rebuild their nation,” he added, in a post on social media. “Today, another wall comes down.”
Syrian officials hope that the end of U.S. sanctions may help the country attract foreign capital.
Analysts say that Syria’s ports on the Mediterranean Sea could become an export route for oil and gas shipments from the region, and a possible alternative to the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway in the Persian Gulf that has been effectively closed since the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran.
To take advantage of those opportunities, Syria needs to rebuild and modernize roads, utilities and infrastructure that were destroyed during the war — all of which require partner states and international investment.
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