Removing of financial sanctions on Syria is important

Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani has been touring Arab and European capitals pleading for an end to sanctions which are obstructing the country’s reconstruction and recovery after years of war and mismanagement. This has been given urgency by the return to their homes of a million Syrians, the majority of whom have been displaced within Syria but also 280,000 from outside the country.

While some sanctions have been removed or eased, the comprehensive regime imposed before and during the Assad era are crippling efforts by Hay ‘at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) to rebuild infrastructure, restore financial services, and provide for the population. The most destructive of the series of US sanctions imposed on Syria was the Caesar Syrian Civilian Protection Act adopted by the US Congress in 2019 during the first Trump administration. This act barred nearly all foreign businesses from dealing with Syria. Essentials like wheat which are normally exempt from sanctions have been adversely affected.

During 14 years of conflict and insecurity, Syria’s economy shrank by 84 per cent, driving 90 per cent of Syrians into poverty, the UN reports. The World Bank says between 2011 and 2023, the value of the Syrian pound dropped from 47 pounds to the dollar to more than 12,500 to the dollar. Electricity is major problem with major cities experiencing daily outages and the countryside suffers near total deprivation due to the lack of fuel for power plants. Government revenue has fallen from 20 per cent to five per cent from sale of Syria’s oil as the northeastern oil fields are occupied by US-backed, Kurdish dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). It controls one quarter of Syrian territory and demands autonomy in a decentralised Syria. While HTS has not agreed, Turkey has threatened to use force to prevent Kurdish self-rule in Syria as Ankara is fighting Turkish Kurds who aim to achieve this longstanding goal in southeastern Turkey.

Last week, Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued a report condemning sanctions and demanding their urgent removal. HRW researcher Hiba Zayadin stated, “Syria is in desperate need of reconstruction and Syrians are struggling to survive. With the collapse of the former government, broad sanctions now stand as a major obstacle to restoring essential services such as health care, water, electricity, and education.” HRW contends that conflict and displacement have left “entire towns uninhabitable, schools, hospitals, roads, water facilities and electrical grids damaged, public services barely functioning, and the economy in freefall.” HRW argues that sanctions are depriving Syrians of basic rights. This must be remedied by “restoring Syria’s access to global financial systems, ending trade restrictions on essential goods, addressing energy sanctions to ensure access to fuel and electricity, and providing clear legal assurances to financial institutions and businesses to mitigate the chilling effect of overcompliance” as secondary sanctions on banks and businesses can be imposed by the US.

European Union (EU) foreign ministers, who are set to discuss Syria during a meeting in Brussels today (Monday 24th), could suspend sanctions on energy, transport, and reconstruction but not on financial transactions which are key to Syria’s recovery. This partial relaxation would be a welcome development if the US follows the EU example. If not, Washington’s crushing sanctions regime would seriously limit the positive impact of the EU move.

The US and EU argue that they must retain the leverage of sanctions to compel HTS to include all Syrians in governance by sharing power with Christian, Druze, and Kurdish minorities. The successor of al-Qaeda’s Nusra Front, HTS is not trusted either to establish an inclusive regime or to meet the challenge of rebuilding the country. HTS has admitted that it is overwhelmed with this massive task. HTS’s success in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province which had a population of four million cannot be repeated easily in the whole of Syria. Before the war, Syria had a population of 23 million; 13 million have been either displaced within the country or become refugees in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan. Sanctions could also be used to discourage HTS from imposing its brand of religious fundamentalism and ruling with an iron fist, marginalising, arresting and eliminating dissidents as it did in Idlib. Syria is not Idlib.

HTS’s efforts to control all Syrian territory are not only challenged by the Kurds but also by Israel’s occupation of the demilitarised UN-buffer zone between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. The buffer zone was established in 1974 after the 1973 Syrian-Egyptian war against Israel waged to regain territory of both countries conquered by Israel in 1967. Thanks to an infusion of US weapons, the Egyptian and Syrian armies were forced by the Israeli army to retreat from territory they had captured, and the demilitarised buffer zone was created.

As soon as HTS ousted the Assad’s on December 8th, Israel moved into the UN-supervised buffer zone and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu unilaterally revoked the 1974 disengagement agreement which established the buffer zone.

The Israeli army also took control of the summit of Jabal Shaikh (Mount Hermon) on the Syrian side of the border and bombed Syrian military installations and arsenals. Israel has since consolidated its presence in the buffer zone, erecting prefabricated housing for troops. Agricultural land was proclaimed military zones, and a curfew was imposed after residents of the zone’s villages protested.

Syria’s new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa responded by saying Damascus would not threaten Israel or allow Iran, the ally of the Assads, to reestablish itself in Syria. He argued that Israel had no legitimate right to occupy Syria. It must be remembered that as HTSD commander Sharaa took the nom du guerre Abu Mohammed al-Julani. This identifies him as a member of the large Syrian refugee community from the Israeli-occupied Golan.

Israel subsequently ordered the surrender of weapons and temporarily displaced villagers. While Israeli troops have conducted home searches Israeli bulldozers have torn up roads and disrupted electricity supplies with the aim of evicting villagers. On February 11th, the Israeli army announced that it would permanently occupy the buffer zone and seized territory in Syria while boosting the number of illegal settlers in the occupied and annexed Syrian Golan Heights.