What would lifting US Caesar Act sanctions on Syria mean?

US President Donald Trump met Syrian leader Ahmad Al Shara at the White House on Monday, and Washington announced during the visit that it was renewing a waiver of Caesar Act sanctions on Damascus.

The Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act, passed in 2019, imposed sanctions on the government of Bashar Al Assad and people connected to it. Mr Al Shara's Hayat Tahrir Al Sham group toppled the Assad regime last December.

As Mr Trump and Mr Al Shara held a closed-door meeting, the State Department, the Treasury Department and the Department of Commerce said Caesar Act sanctions would be lifted for a period of 180 days, with exceptions of sanctionable transactions with Russia and Iran. The waiver renews a May 23 pause.

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In the advisory, the departments stated that the move indicates "our commitment to continued sanctions relief for Syria".

The Caesar Act, which contains most of the US sanctions against Syria, can only be lifted permanently by congressional action.

With the lifting of the Caesar Act sanctions, US companies will be able to conduct business in Syria, including with the Syrian government. This would allow the country to continue its reintegration into the international community after decades of isolation.

It would also allow Syria to rebuild after almost 14 years of civil war.

The conflict devastated the economy, causing severe damage to infrastructure and thousands to flee the country. Syria’s gross domestic product has cumulatively contracted by more than 50 per cent since 2010 and gross national income per capita fell to $830 in 2024 - well below the international threshold for low-income countries, according to the World Bank.

The World Bank has estimated it will take about $216 billion for Syria to rebuild. Inflation also remains high in the country.

Still, Mr Al Shara has projected optimism, saying late last month that Syria has attracted about $28 billion in investment since the change of power last year. Lifting the sanctions could attract more international businesses, including many from the US, to invest in Syria.

Former Centcom chief Joseph Votel and Middle East Institute Syria expert Charles Lister said that while the Caesar Act sanctions made sense in 2019, they are "no longer appropriate" now that the Assad regime has fallen and the country is working to rebuild.

"Long-term investors will need assurances that Caesar sanctions will be fully lifted before opting to make the big bets that are sorely needed to rebuild Syria," they said after the temporary lifting of sanctions was announced.

"Likewise, Syria’s neighbours and the broader region want to see this obstacle conclusively removed before moving ahead with large-scale direct investment or expanding their trade relations with the war-torn country."

Despite the waiver and Mr Trump's May executive order ending the US sanctions programme against Syria, there has opposition in Congress against repealing the Caesar Act due to human rights concerns amid violence in some regions. A bill was introduced to the House of Representatives in July calling for a two-year monitoring period before sanctions are lifted.

Mr Al Shara used part of his visit to Washington to rally members of Congress to repeal the act.

"We must give Syria a chance and achieve a complete and total repeal of Caesar," Representative Joe Wilson, one of the foremost proponents of lifting the sanctions, said in a post on X after a meeting with Mr Al Shara.

Mr Al Shara also met Representative Brian Mast, head of the influential House foreign affairs committee and a holdout on lifting the Caesar Act. Mr Mast said in a statement on Monday that he and Mr Al Shara had a "long and serious conversation".

"I asked him bluntly: 'Why aren't we enemies any more?'" Mr Mast said. "His response was that he wants 'to break free from the past and to nobly strive for his people and his country, and to be a great ally to the United States of America'."