Report: US Gave Syria List of Conditions for Partial Sanctions Relief

The United States has handed Syria a list of conditions that it wants Damascus to fulfill in exchange for partial sanctions relief, six people familiar with the matter told Reuters, including ensuring foreigners are not in senior governing roles.

US Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Levant and Syria Natasha Franceschi gave the list of demands to Syrian foreign minister Asaad al-Shaibani at an in-person meeting on the sidelines of a Syria donor conference in Brussels on March 18, according to two of the people - a US official and a Syrian source familiar with the matter.

Reuters was first to report both the list and the in-person meeting, the first high-level direct contact between Damascus and Washington since US President Donald Trump took office on Jan. 20, has been previously reported.

Reuters spoke to six sources for this story, including two US officials, a Syrian source, a regional diplomat and two sources in Washington familiar with the matter. They all requested anonymity to discuss the high-level diplomacy.

Among the conditions placed by the United States are Syria's destruction of any remaining chemical weapons stores and cooperation on counter-terrorism, the two US officials, the Syrian source and both sources in Washington said.

Another demand was making sure foreign fighters are not installed in senior roles in Syria's governing structure, the US officials and one of the sources in Washington said.

Syria has already appointed some foreign ex-fighters, including Uyghurs, a Jordanian and a Turk, to its defense ministry - a move that alarmed foreign governments.

Washington also asked Syria to appoint a liaison to assist US efforts to find Austin Tice, the US journalist who went missing in Syria over a decade ago, according to the two US officials and both sources in Washington.

In return for fulfilling all the demands, Washington would provide some sanctions relief, all six sources said. One specific action would be a two-year extension of an existing exemption for transactions with Syrian governing institutions and possibly the issuance of another exemption.

The US would also issue a statement supporting Syria's territorial integrity, the source said.

Washington did not provide a specific timeline for the conditions to be fulfilled.

Syria's foreign ministry did not respond to requests for comments. A spokesperson for the State Department said the agency does not "discuss our private diplomatic conversations publicly." Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce last week said Washington was monitoring the actions of the interim rulers.

Syria is in desperate need of sanctions relief to kickstart an economy collapsed by nearly 14 years of war, during which the United States, the UK and Europe placed tough sanctions on people, businesses and whole sectors of Syria's economy in a bid to squeeze now-ousted leader Bashar al-Assad.

Some of those sanctions have been temporarily suspended, with limited effect. The US issued a six-month general license in January to ease the flow of humanitarian aid, but the move was not considered enough to allow Qatar to pay for public sector salaries through Syria's central bank.

Syrian officials including Shaibani and interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa have called for sanctions to be fully lifted, saying it is unjust to keep them in place following Assad's toppling by a lightning opposition offensive in December.

US SYRIA POLICY IN PROGRESS

The delivery of the demands is the clearest signal yet of the Trump administration's policy on Syria.

US statements have focused on support for minorities and condemnations of extremism but they have otherwise said little, leaving uncertainty over the future of sanctions and whether US forces will remain deployed in the northeast.

That is in part due to differing views in Washington on how to approach Syria. Some White House officials have been keen to take a more hardline stance, pointing to the new Syrian leadership's former ties to Al-Qaeda as reason to keep engagement to a minimum, according to diplomats and US sources familiar with the policymaking process.

The State Department has sought a more nuanced approach to Syria, including possible areas of engagement, the sources added.

The differences led earlier this month to a heated deliberation between the White House and State Department on US Secretary of State Marco Rubio's statement denouncing violence in western Syria, where hundreds of civilians from the Alawite minority - Assad's sect - were killed after an ambush on new security forces by armed loyalists to the former regime.

Rubio condemned "radical terrorists" that carried out the violence, and called for Syria's interim authorities to hold perpetrators accountable.

The White House sought a more harshly worded statement while the State Department pushed back to add more balance, sources familiar with the process said. Reuters reported last month that Israel was lobbying the United States to keep Syria weak and decentralized.

The administration is still not fully subscribing to Israel's effort to discourage US engagement with Syria's new rulers, sources said, but some of the Israeli concerns are gaining more traction with some US officials.

Amid the devastation, thousands of residents of Syria’s Al-Qusayr performed Eid Al-Fitr prayers in the northern district square—the site where the city’s first protest against President Bashar al-Assad’s rule erupted in 2011.

For the first time in Al-Qusayr’s history, Eid prayers were held in a public square. It was also the first mass gathering of residents in an open space in 13 years, following a war that destroyed 70% of the city, displaced its people, and led to its capture by Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Syrian regime forces.

Al-Qusayr, a region located near the Lebanese border, was once Hezbollah’s most significant stronghold in Syria. The group withdrew after the fall of the Syrian regime in December, but its loyalists and affiliated locals remained, along with residents of several border villages that have seen sporadic clashes in recent months.

The most intense fighting occurred in February, when Syrian forces launched a military operation that pushed them into Lebanese territory and deployed troops to seal off illegal border crossings.

Tensions flared again two weeks ago after Syrian soldiers were killed in the border region, triggering an exchange of artillery fire between the two sides.

The clashes left casualties on both ends and forced the displacement of border village residents before a ceasefire was reached with the Lebanese army.

The agreement included the closure of four illegal crossings in an effort to curb the smuggling of weapons and drugs, a trade that has flourished over the past decade under the former regime.

As soon as the regime fell, refugees from Al-Qusayr living in Lebanese camps began returning to their hometown. Hundreds arrived to find their homes completely destroyed, forcing them to set up tents beside the ruins while they rebuilt or searched for alternative housing.

The residents of Al-Qusayr resumed their communal Eid traditions after Ramadan. (Sami Volunteer Team)

The large turnout for Eid prayers underscored the scale of the return.

Journalist Ahmed al-Qasir, who recently came back, estimated that about 65% of those displaced have now returned. Before the uprising, Al-Qusayr had a population of around 150,000, he told Asharq Al-Awsat.

Shahin, 30, who returned in 2018, described the city as a wasteland at the time, despite some 20,000 people having already come back.

“Hezbollah, regime militias, and smugglers controlled the area. There were no real markets, just small shops. Everything was in ruins—schools, clinics, hospitals,” he said.

Residents had to travel 30 kilometers to Homs for basic necessities, enduring regime checkpoints that extorted money along the way.

With the fall of Assad’s regime and Hezbollah’s withdrawal, life in Al-Qusayr has slowly begun to return to normal. Since the start of Ramadan, markets have reopened despite widespread destruction, poverty, and hardship.

On the eve of Eid, the city’s streets buzzed with late-night shopping, Shahin noted.

“Al-Qusayr is finally regaining its role as the region’s commercial hub,” he said.

According to a survey by the Sami Volunteer Team, more than 30,000 refugees returned to Al-Qusayr and its countryside within the first month of the regime’s collapse.

That number is believed to have doubled over the past four months, and team organizers expect it to rise further once the school year ends.

Zaid Harba, a member of the 40-person volunteer group, said most returnees came from refugee camps in Lebanon, while fewer arrived from displacement camps in northern Syria.

Many families there are waiting for the academic year to conclude before arranging their return.

Report: US Gave Syria List of Conditions for Partial Sanctions Relief