suing Syria<\/a> on behalf of 130 US citizens who were killed or injured on October 7 and family members of American victims. Launched in July 2024, \u00a0less than half a year before Ahmed al-Sharaa\u2019s HTS forces seized control from Bashar al-Assad, the lawsuit alleges that Syria, along with North Korea and Iran, \u201cprovided material support to Hamas that enabled it to commit atrocities in Israel on October 7, 2023.\u201d<\/p>\nFor example, in Colvin v. Syrian Arab Republic, a US court ruled that the Syrian regime must pay out $302.5 million in damages to the family of Marie Colvin, a war correspondent killed in a targeted attack in Homs in 2012.<\/p>\n
Other countries who were removed from list had to compensate US victims<\/p>\n
Though now under a different leadership, other countries have been expected to pay out millions to victims as part of an agreement to be taken off the list of state sponsors of terrorism. In 2008, for example, Libya compensated families of US victims of Libyan terror attacks, including the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988, two years after it was removed from the list as part of a $1.8 billion deal.<\/p>\n
\u201c[American] victims now can only hope their government will not forget them, and that it intends to address the claims and judgments Congress allowed them to pursue in US courts, and not render that commitment to help them seek justice an empty promise,\u201d Portnoy said, adding that \u201c\u2018it also is unclear how Syria and its new business partners will be protected from the claims of hundreds, if not thousands, of judgment creditors who will need to identify other ways to enforce their judgments if left unaddressed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr. Tamim Khromachou, the Syrian-Alawite president of the Levant Council of the United States and the Americans for Levant Foundation, told The Post that delisting Syria does not address the sectarian violence in Syria, and could inadvertently strengthen actors responsible for abuses seen in recent years, though it would undoubtedly be beneficial for Syria\u2019s economy and diplomatic efforts.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is also important to remember that Syria moved from the political dictatorship of the Assad regime into a period of civil and sectarian violence while Syria was under the same terrorism-related designations. So, ultimately, the designation itself does not determine which direction Syria takes,\u201d Khromachou said. \u201cThe will of the new authorities, the nature of the institutions they build, and the commitment of those supporting Syria\u2019s transition will be far more consequential.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cRemoving the designation could provide an important opportunity for Syria, but that opportunity needs to be accompanied by meaningful safeguards, accountability, and guarantees that the emerging state will protect all Syrians regardless of their sect or identity,\u201d he shared.<\/p>\n
Israeli expert sees move as positive to tackle Syrian sectarian violence<\/p>\n
Though minorities in Syria may waver in how they view this latest move, Dr. Ely Karmon, a senior researcher at The International Institute for Counter-Terrorism at Reichman University, told The Post that Washington\u2019s decision could only help tackle the bad actors involved in the sectarian attacks.<\/p>\n
Explaining that the Islamist groups operating in Syria hadn\u2019t been taken as quickly by the \u201ccharismatic\u201d Sharaa as European and American leadership, Karmon made clear he didn\u2019t believe that Sharaa\u2019s government had been responsible for the sectarian violence but said that Washington\u2019s decision to delist Syria would likely encourage him to act more strongly against it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Syrian army was not yet really under control, and still is not completely under control,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The European Union has been slower than the US to remove sanctions, and Sharaa will need to prove he can provide a stable future for Syria in order to see the country freed from the financial restraints, he explained. With the removal of US sanctions, Damascus will have more breathing room to create that stability, he argued.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Washington\u2019s decision on Monday to remove Syria from its list of state sponsors of terrorism has dealt American…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":244328,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[30],"tags":[6826,95,11595,47015,545,72961,256],"class_list":["post-265834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-syria","tag-adl","tag-syria","tag-syria-us","tag-terror-victims","tag-terrorism","tag-terrorism-in-middle-east","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/117162800796713534","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}