Sanctions officials at Treasury and State caught off guard by Trump's decision

15/5/2025 6:09

When President

Donald Trump announced in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday that he would

lift all sanctions on Syria, the decision, which will boost a

country devastated by 13 years of war, took many in the region

by surprise.



It also caught some in his own administration off guard.



In Washington, senior officials at the State Department and

Treasury Department scrambled to understand how to cancel the

sanctions, many of which have been in place for decades,

according to four U.S. officials familiar with the matter.



The White House had issued no memorandum or directive to

State or Treasury sanctions officials to prepare for the

unwinding and didn’t alert them that the president’s

announcement was imminent, one senior U.S. official told

Reuters.



The sudden removal of the sanctions appeared to be a classic

Trump move - a sudden decision, a dramatic announcement and a

shock not just for allies but also some of the very officials

who implement the policy change.



After the announcement, officials were confused about

exactly how the administration would unwind the layers of

sanctions, which ones were being eased and when the White House

wanted to begin the process.



By the time Trump met interim Syrian President Ahmed

al-Sharaa in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, officials at State and

Treasury were still unsure how to proceed, the senior official

said.



“Everyone is trying to figure out how to implement it,” said

one U.S. official in reference to the president’s announcement.



Following the ouster of former President Bashar al-Assad

late last year, officials from both State and Treasury had

drafted memos and options papers to help guide the government on

lifting Syria sanctions if and when the administration chose to

do so.



But senior White House and national security officials, as

well as some lawmakers on Capitol Hill, have for months debated

whether to ease sanctions, given Sharaa's former ties with al

Qaeda. The Syrian leader severed ties with the group in 2016.



Before Trump’s trip to Saudi Arabia, there was no clear

indication – at least to the officials inside State and Treasury

working on sanctions – that the president had made a decision,

the senior U.S. official said.



The State Department and Treasury Department did not

immediately respond to a request for comment.



A White House official told Reuters that Turkey and

Saudi Arabia had asked Trump to lift the sanctions and to meet

with Sharaa. In his announcement, Trump said that he did so to

give Syria a chance at a better future.







COMPLICATED UNWINDING



Trump's decision may not have come completely out of the

blue.



Senior Syrian officials were in Washington last month

and lobbied hard to have all the sanctions removed, said

Jonathan Schanzer, a former senior Treasury official who is now

the executive director of the Foundation for Defense of

Democracies, who met with Syrian officials during their visit.



Nevertheless, the easing of sanctions on Syria does not

appear to be imminent.



A White House readout of Trump's meeting with the Syrian

leader said the president asked Syria to adhere to several

conditions in exchange for sanctions relief, including telling

all foreign terrorists to leave Syria, deporting "Palestinian

terrorists," and helping the U.S. prevent the resurgence of

ISIS.



Removing sanctions is rarely straightforward, often

requiring close coordination between multiple different agencies

and Congress.



But it is particularly challenging in Syria's case, given

the layers of measures cutting it off from the international

banking system and barring many international imports.



The U.S. first put the country on its state sponsor of

terror list in 1979 and since then has added additional sets of

sanctions, including several rounds following the country’s 2011

uprising against Assad.



Edward Fishman, a former U.S. official and the author of the

book "Chokepoints," said the unwinding of Syria sanctions, which

were imposed under a mix of executive orders and statutes, could

take months to ease. He noted, however, that the Treasury

Department has practice from sanctions relief provided to Iran

as part of the nuclear deal in 2015.



Complicating the task are sanctions imposed under the

"Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act," also known as the

"Caesar Act,” which was passed in 2019 and extended late last

year just after Syria's government fell. The act imposed stiff

sanctions not just on Assad's government but also secondary

sanctions on outside companies or governments that worked with

it.



Overturning the bill would require congressional action, but

it includes a provision allowing the president to suspend the

sanctions for national security reasons. Trump could also issue

a general license suspending some or all of the sanctions.



Fishman said he would be surprised if every single sanction

was lifted as part of Trump's order, adding that some specific

people or entities in Syria sanctioned for specific

behavior-based reasons, such as support for a terrorist group,

may not be removed from the sanctions list.