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.