DAMASCUS: Syria on Monday welcomed the US Treasury Department’s decision to remove it from the sanctions list under the Code of Federal Regulations, describing it as a “positive development” that could ease humanitarian and economic hardships.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced that the Syrian Sanctions Regulations will be lifted as of Tuesday following President Donald Trump’s June order to terminate the national emergency underpinning the restrictions.
Sanctions dating back to 2004 and expanded during years of conflict will no longer apply, officially allowing American companies to conduct business with Damascus.
In a statement, Syria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the move will “directly reflect on the humanitarian and economic conditions of the Syrian people” by facilitating trade, financial transactions and US exports, while opening “new horizons for economic and trade cooperation between the two countries.”
The ministry noted the timing of the decision coincided with the visit of a second official US congressional delegation to Damascus, led by Senator Jeanne Shaheen and Representative Joe Wilson, accompanied by Ambassador Tom Barrack, the US president’s special envoy for Syria.
