The Trump administration on Friday announced sanctions relief for Syria as part of a series of steps to end decades of penalties and to stabilize the country.
The Treasury Department said it will grant Syria a 180-day waiver, known as GL 25, to ease financial restrictions that target the country’s former rulers in an effort to give its new leaders a chance to rebuild a nation still scarred by more than a decade of civil war.
It will facilitate the provision of electricity, energy, water, and sanitation, and enable a more effective humanitarian response across Syria, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said.
“As President Trump promised, the Treasury Department and the State Department are implementing authorizations to encourage new investment into Syria,” said Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent. “Syria must also continue to work towards becoming a stable country that is at peace, and today’s actions will hopefully put the country on a path to a bright, prosperous, and stable future.”
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The waiver will allow Syria to engage in Syrian reconstruction and other economic activity. The sanctions relief has been extended on the condition that Syrian leaders will not offer a safe haven for terrorist organizations and will ensure the security of its religious and ethnic minorities, the Treasury Department said.
“Today’s actions represent the first step in delivering on the President’s vision of a new relationship between Syria and the United States,” Rubio said in a statement. “President Trump is providing the Syrian government with the chance to promote peace and stability, both within Syria and in Syria’s relations with its neighbors. The President has made clear his expectation that relief will be followed by prompt action by the Syrian government on important policy priorities.”
The move came after Tom Barrack, US Ambassador to Turkey and former advisor to President Donald Trump, announced on Friday that he would be filling the role of U.S. Special Envoy for Syria, while highlighting recent sanctions relief.
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“The cessation of sanctions against Syria will preserve the integrity of our primary objective — the enduring defeat of ISIS — and will give the people of Syria a chance for a better future,” he wrote Friday on X. “In this way, we, together with regional partners including Turkiye and the Gulf, are enabling the Syrian government to restore peace, security, and the hope of prosperity. In the words of the President, we will work together, and we will succeed together.”
Syria’s former autocratic leader, Bashar al-Assad, ruled the country for decades after succeeding his father. Assad’s government, long sustained by Russia and Iran, presided over 13 years of civil war, and collapsed last year during a major offensive by rebel fighters.
Assad and his family left Syria for Moscow to seek asylum.
The waiver announced on Friday prohibits the new Syrian government from engaging in transactions that benefit Russia, Iran, North Korea or key supporters of the former Assad regime.
