When Syrian interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa meets with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on November 10, he is expected to announce that Syria has joined the International Coalition to Defeat ISIS. This is a significant and courageous move for a figure once on the United States’ terror list after years within al-Qaeda and as leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. In exchange, Sharaa will request that the US Congress fully lift the 2019 Caesar Act sanctions imposed on Syria during Bashar al-Assad’s rule.
The Assad regime’s collapse in December 2024 left Syria initially jubilant but also broken, fractured, and exhausted. After nearly 14 years of brutal civil conflict and more than half a century of ruthless and corrupt dictatorial rule, it is hard to understate the extraordinary scale of the challenge ahead for Syria.
We just spent a week in Damascus, as part of a Middle East Institute delegation, and saw first-hand the enormous scale of destruction and the consequences of a merciless autocratic regime — from urban areas turned to rubble, to the shocking costs associated with more than 500,000 people killed and 200,000 more disappeared.
Faced with the barbarity of Assad’s state apparatus — including the industrial-scale murder and torture of thousands of detainees — Congress rightly imposed the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act in 2019. This legislation’s wide-ranging fiscal punitive measures were a justified response to the unspeakable crimes of the Assad regime, in addition to the existing executive branch sanctions imposed by President Barrack Obama’s administration.
But Caesar sanctions are no longer appropriate for a country that is now rid of Assad and straining to rebuild and reunify. The Caesar Act seals Syria off from the international banking system and blocks any new investment and transactions in dollars. After meeting President Sharaa in Saudi Arabia in May, President Trump unilaterally lifted most of the executive branch sanctions on Syria and suspended implementation of Caesar sanctions on a rolling, six-month basis. This sparked celebrations in the streets across Syria. But long-term investors will need assurances that Caesar sanctions will be fully lifted before opting to make the big bets that are sorely needed to rebuild Syria. Likewise, Syria’s neighbors and the broader region want to see this obstacle conclusively removed before moving ahead with large-scale direct investment or expanding their trade relations with the war-torn country.
During our recent visit, Syrian leaders told us they know that the days of ballyhooed pledging conferences and massive international aid are over. They intend to rebuild their nation with private investment and public-private partnerships. In remarks to a largely business audience in Riyadh last week, Sharaa also spoke about rebuilding the country’s decimated agricultural sector to feed the entire region. The top priority for the newly elected Syrian parliament, now being formed, is a new investment law that will make these things possible. But progress will be on hold until US lawmakers lift the Caesar sanctions, which continue to thoroughly block new investment and economic activity even though their intended target no longer rules the country.
Syria’s transitional government has expressed a commitment to national unity and to protect its numerous minorities. The formation of the new parliament, perhaps this week, will be an important litmus test for minority representation. Sharaa’s government has also tangibly demonstrated willingness to combat ISIS and to prevent Iran from re-establishing its presence in Syria — in coordination with US forces.
The US Senate has already passed draft legislation to repeal the Caesar sanctions. Now, the House of Representatives must also agree, and the timing is urgent. Some members might reasonably question Sharaa’s pledges to govern the country pragmatically while safeguarding minorities, citing his Islamist history. There have been atrocities carried out by rogue groups of fighters on his watch. These House members might understandably favor taking a wait-and-see approach to maintain the leverage that the Caesar Act affords.
But such hesitancy comes at a grave cost. Any delay will postpone desperately needed economic development. Continued failure on reviving the economy will exacerbate the preexisting tensions between various Syrian groups and potentially open the door to further Iranian meddling in Syria, consequently giving a boost to Hizballah, next door in Lebanon. To succeed in their mission at home — and help keep the region from falling back under Tehran’s destabilizing sway — Sharaa and his government need to produce economic growth as soon as possible.
Caesar Act or no, the United States can still preserve leverage through myriad diplomatic tools. If the Syrian government falls short of its commitments, the US president retains the option to re-impose targeted executive branch sanctions. In contrast, the sledgehammer of the Caesar legislation is not well suited to the immediate diplomatic challenge or the historic occasion it presents.
Syria’s strategic importance in the region is enormous. It is at the crossroads of an unprecedented, once-in-a-generation opportunity. Positioned at the heart of the Middle East, a stable and prosperous Syria has the potential to transform the wider region into a place of interconnected, transnational exchange that would benefit not just its neighborhood but the world at large. For five decades under Assad rule, Syria was an exporter of threats and instability. By undoing the Caesar Act, the US today can take a meaningful, achievable step to reverse the Assads’ damaging legacy, supporting the emergence of a unified and integrated Syria that engenders peace and prosperity.
General (ret.) Joseph L. Votel is a Distinguished Military Fellow at the Middle East Institute. He retired as a four-star general in the United States Army after a nearly 40-year career, during which he held a variety of leadership positions, including most recently as commander of US Central Command (CENTCOM) from March 2016 to March 2019.
Charles Lister is a Senior Fellow and head of the Syria Initiative at MEI.
Photo by Rami Alsayed/NurPhoto via Getty Images
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