The US Treasury Department on Monday issued a six-month general license to waive some sanctions on Syria to allow transactions with the new Syrian government that’s led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, an offshoot of al-Qaeda that’s designated by the US as a foreign terrorist organization.
For years, the US has imposed crippling economic sanctions on Syria that were designed to prevent the country’s reconstruction. The sanctions, which have a devastating impact on Syrian civilians, were part of the regime change effort against former President Bashar al-Assad, which ultimately succeeded when he fled the country on December 8 due to an HTS offensive.
In a press release on the general license, the Treasury Department acknowledged the scope of US sanctions on Syria, saying the country was one of the “most comprehensively sanctioned jurisdictions.” The license does not lift any sanctions but allows certain transactions with the HTS-led government.
According to the document, the general license allows “transactions in support of the sale, supply, storage, or donation of energy, including petroleum, petroleum products, natural gas, and electricity, to or within Syria” and “transactions that are ordinarily incident and necessary to processing the transfer of noncommercial, personal remittances to Syria, including through the Central Bank of Syria.”
The Treasury Department said the purpose of the license is to ensure US sanctions “do not impede activities to meet basic human needs, including the provision of public services or humanitarian assistance,” an acknowledgment that US sanctions have been impeding humanitarian goods.
The US has also lifted a $10 million bounty that it had on the head of HTS’s leader, Abu Mohammed al-Julani, who has been going by his real name, Ahmad al-Sharaa. The US sent Barbara Leaf, a high-level State Department official, to hold a meeting with Julani in Damascus, which she described as “good” and “productive.”
President Biden and other US officials celebrated the regime change in Syria despite the country being taken over by an al-Qaeda-affiliated group. Demonstrating the HTS extremist history, videos have emerged of Syria’s new justice minister, Shadi al-Waisi, overseeing the execution of two women over charges of adultery and prostitution in 2015.
