One yr in the past this month, the Syrian folks achieved the unattainable: After practically 14 years of brutal battle and 5 a long time of dictatorship, they drove out the regime of Bashar al-Assad and stepped into a brand new period. Assad’s legacy is staggering: over 500,000 killed, 13 million displaced, a jail system constructed on torture and disappearance, and an economic system so damaged that greater than 90 % of the nation had fallen into poverty.
This August, we traveled to Damascus and noticed the civil warfare’s devastation up shut. However whereas assembly with President Ahmed al-Sharaa, his cupboard, and leaders from Syria’s many spiritual and ethnic communities, we additionally noticed one thing exceptional: Syrians treating this second as a once-in-a-generation probability to rebuild their nation and reshape their area for the higher.
One yr in the past this month, the Syrian folks achieved the unattainable: After practically 14 years of brutal battle and 5 a long time of dictatorship, they drove out the regime of Bashar al-Assad and stepped into a brand new period. Assad’s legacy is staggering: over 500,000 killed, 13 million displaced, a jail system constructed on torture and disappearance, and an economic system so damaged that greater than 90 % of the nation had fallen into poverty.
This August, we traveled to Damascus and noticed the civil warfare’s devastation up shut. However whereas assembly with President Ahmed al-Sharaa, his cupboard, and leaders from Syria’s many spiritual and ethnic communities, we additionally noticed one thing exceptional: Syrians treating this second as a once-in-a-generation probability to rebuild their nation and reshape their area for the higher.
Now, that probability is threatened by U.S. sanctions that had been meant to push Assad to cease brutalizing his personal folks. These sanctions now punish a rustic made up of Assad’s former victims—who’re all making an attempt to get well. If we don’t change course, Syria’s struggling and its folks’s hard-won progress could possibly be squandered.
What occurs subsequent issues deeply not simply to the Syrian folks, however to America. After a long time of allying with our adversaries and serving as a breeding floor for instability and terrorism, Syria has the potential to develop into a affluent member of the worldwide group. This is able to profit U.S. commerce ties, nationwide safety pursuits, and regional companions like Israel, Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon, and Iraq.
However stitching collectively a rustic riven by civil warfare and largely in ruins is not going to be simple or low cost. Terror teams just like the Islamic State and malign actors like Iran and Russia is not going to look forward to an opportunity to reinsert themselves. Simply this previous weekend, U.S. Central Command introduced that the Islamic State killed three American personnel in Syria, demonstrating that it stays a lethal menace. For this reason Syria’s safety forces should be ready to battle terrorism and deny malign actors the power to launch operations within the nation.
Syrians face crumbling infrastructure, meals insecurity, lack of dependable medical care, excessive risks from land mines and unexploded bombs, and an economic system struggling to connect with the world resulting from lingering sanctions. The United Nations estimates Syria would require over $200 billion for reconstruction over a few years earlier than it could actually start to resemble its prewar state.
Syria wants an actual promise of a greater future to be able to chart a brand new course. That’s why each of us—a Democrat and a Republican—championed the repeal of the Caesar Act, which imposed punishing sanctions on the Assad regime. We could have coverage disagreements on different points, however on this we’re united—and are appreciative of the Trump administration’s parallel work.
The all-encompassing sanctions regime imposed on Assad is now retaining Syria out within the chilly. It stymies makes an attempt to stabilize, get well, and start to construct consultant establishments. The Trump administration has labored to reverse some sanctions, together with by offering short-term six-month waivers of the Caesar Act. Nonetheless, no non-public buyers or any of our regional companions can justify critical funding with out longer-term assurances than six-month waivers can present. That’s the reason Congress should repeal the Caesar Act now.
Repealing debilitating sanctions will enable Syrians to fulfill the various calls for we place on them by constructing the capability to seek out and destroy chemical weapons, halt the unlawful drug commerce, destroy the Islamic State, and develop the means to guard all Syrian residents equally. The U.S. particular envoy for Syria, Ambassador to Turkey Thomas Barrack, has already proven how sustained diplomatic engagement can yield great outcomes. With out extra capability, we’re merely asking them to do the unattainable. We have now many instruments to make sure Syria continues to maneuver in constructive instructions in areas like human rights, democracy, transitional justice, and demanding dialogue and integration amongst all Syrian communities—instruments we use day by day in coping with non-sanctioned states all over the world. These may embody capacity-building for inside safety and civilian police, reintegration help for returning refugees, and help for Syria’s nascent civil society organizations.
Within the second yr of the brand new Syria, will probably be vital to ensure a brand new oligarchy doesn’t emerge and a brand new sectarian dictatorship doesn’t exchange the outdated one. The US is uniquely suited to make use of political and financial leverage to maintain the brand new Syria aligned with our values and our imaginative and prescient. Syria will want to withstand the temptation to show to different companions like China and Russia for fast however unreliable fixes. We should additionally work hand in hand with our regional companions, who can be important to elevating wanted capital. America and our firms should be the long-term industrial, diplomatic, and safety companions of alternative.
When situations on the bottom change, our coverage must do the identical. We now have a generational window to repeal the Caesar Act and make one of the crucial consequential and flamable areas on the planet extra secure and extra aligned with our values and pursuits. Syria has great promise, and it’ll take all of us working collectively to comprehend that promise—for Syria’s good and for ours. In spite of everything of their struggling, the Syrian folks deserve nothing much less.
