A bipartisan pair of congressional lawmakers are pushing to lift US sanctions on Syria after they were heartened by a visit with the country’s new interim leader.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Republican Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina, told reporters on a call that they had talked with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa about permanently lifting sanctions and would make a push to have Congress do that in the coming months.
Trump issued an executive order lifting the sanctions on the country in June, but Congress would need to act to make that move permanent.
Shaheen said the sanctions “are preventing investment in the country and the prosperity and opportunity that people want to see in the future.”
The top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee also said Israel’s bombing campaign in Gaza needs to end after an airstrike on a hospital killed five journalists.
“I personally am appalled by the bombing in Gaza and by the killing of journalists. And I think it needs to end now,” Shaheen told reporters on a call from Beirut.
Shaheen was traveling in the Middle East as part of a US delegation to meet with Sharaa. Congressional Democrats, who once were stalwart supporters of Israel, have recently become more outspoken critics of how Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has conducted the war on Hamas.
