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    Trump signs executive order to lift some financial sanctions on Syria

    Donald Trump has signed an executive order to lift some financial sanctions on Syria in a move that the White House says will help stabilise the country after the ousting of Bashar al-Assad.The order was designed to “terminate the United States’ sanctions programme on Syria”, a White House spokesperson said, cancelling a 2004 declaration that froze Syrian government property and limited exports to Syria over Damascus’s chemical weapons programme.Some sanctions will remain on Syria, including those mandated through Congress under the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act of 2019 that targeted funds for reconstruction and natural gas development, as well as the US declaration of Syria as a state sponsor of terrorism.Trump’s order would mainly direct other members of the administration to consider broader sanctions relief for Syria – and could possibly provide leverage with Syria in talks on normalising ties with Israel and foreign investment in the country’s reconstruction.The order included a direction to secretary of state Marco Rubio to evaluate suspending sanctions under the Caesar Act, permit the relaxation of control on the export of “certain goods”, and lift restrictions on some foreign aid. It also directs Rubio to review Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa’s designation as a terrorist leader and Syria’s designation as a state sponsor of terrorism, and to consider measures for sanctions relief through the United Nations.“We welcome the cancellation of the majority of the sanctions program imposed on the Syrian Arab Republic, pursuant to the historic executive order issued by President Trump,” said Syrian foreign minister Asaad Hassan al-Shaibani. “By removing this major obstacle to economic recovery, the doors to long-awaited reconstruction and development are opened, along with the rehabilitation of vital infrastructure, providing the necessary conditions for the dignified and safe return of displaced Syrians to their homeland.”The White House sought to portray the decision as one that would protect US interests, noting Trump’s efforts to “address foreign terrorists”, promote the normalisation of ties with Israel, and prevent a resurgence of the Islamic State.“President Trump wants Syria to succeed – but not at the expense of US interests,” the White House said in a statement.White House officials said that the executive order would maintain pressure on the former leader Assad and his entourage.“The order will remove sanctions on Syria while maintaining sanctions on the former president, Assad, his associates, human rights abusers, drug traffickers, persons linked to chemical weapons activities, Islamic State and their affiliates, and Iranian proxies,” said the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, during a briefing on Monday.The move was widely anticipated after Donald Trump briefly met with Syria’s new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, who led forces that overthrew Assad in December. Sharaa has complained that the sanctions against Syria had made it difficult to stabilise his fragile transition government, citing issues with paying civil servant wages and funding reconstruction. Trump pledged in May to lift all sanctions on Syria following Assad’s removal from power.The executive order would “end the country’s isolation from the international financial system, setting the stage for global commerce, and galvanizing investments from its neighbors in the region as well as from the US”, said acting under-secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence Brad Smith in a briefing with reporters.Asked about the Abraham accords, the Trump administration’s negotiations for Arab states to normalise diplomatic ties with Israel, a senior administration official suggested that the White House would not push for the recognition of specific territorial claims between Syria and Israel.“We’re going to come to a mutuality of understanding, and you’re going to get there slowly, and there’s going to be metrics and milestones and objectives, and you’re going to start trusting each other,” the official said. “And over this trust, those lines become illusory.” More

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    Israeli Strikes Kill IRGC Leader and Major Nuclear Scientists

    Israel has long targeted Iranian officials for assassination. But these attacks marked a significant shift in tactics, targeting multiple officials at once inside Iran.Israel’s wave of attacks in Iran overnight on Friday targeted top Iranian officials and appeared to successfully kill the leader of the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, in a shocking series of strikes that aimed to deal significant blows to Iran’s security leadership.Hossein Salami, the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, was killed in an Israeli strike within the Iranian capital of Tehran, according to Tasnim, a semiofficial news site affiliated with the government. As leader of the force, Mr. Salami had helped oversee the relationship with Iranian proxies like Hezbollah, the Lebanese armed group, which had long menaced Israel.Tasnim also reported that at least three other senior Iranian leaders were thought to have been killed. They were Gholamali Rashid, the deputy commander of the Iranian armed forces; Mohammad Mehdi Tehranji, an Iranian physicist; and Fereydoun Abbasi, an Iranian nuclear scientist.Israel has long sought to assassinate Iranian security chiefs and nuclear scientists. But it has generally picked them off one by one, often while they were outside Iranian territory in Lebanon or Syria.The attacks early on Friday appeared to be a significant shift in tactics. Not only did they target Iran’s nuclear program and air defenses, the Israeli attacks also sought to eliminate many senior members of the Iranian security establishment at once.Israel also targeted Mohammad Bagheri, the chief of staff of the Iranian armed forces, as well as other senior commanders in the Guards Corps and leading scientists in the country’s nuclear program, according to two Israeli defense officials familiar with the matter. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.There was no immediate comment from Iranian officials on Mr. Bagheri’s condition. More

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    Syrians Rejoice at Being Exempted From Trump Travel Ban

    Damascus residents hope the decision is another sign that the world is normalizing relations with Syria after the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad.During his first term, President Trump included Syria in a series of travel bans targeting mostly Muslim-majority nations, branding refugees from the war-ravaged country as requiring “extreme vetting” to protect national security.The impact was immediate: flights were canceled, refugee resettlements were halted, and families were separated.But on Wednesday, Syria was exempted from Mr. Trump’s new travel ban, representing another sign of the seismic shift in U.S. foreign policy toward the country after the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad, the former president, in December.Syria was one of only four countries that were blacklisted in Mr. Trump’s first term that were excluded this time around, alongside Iraq, North Korea and Nigeria.For many Syrians, the news added to a growing sense of optimism about the country’s future as it emerges from years of war and decades of authoritarian dictatorship.“This is something that brings hope for the future, especially for the younger generation,” said Lina Habshi as she shopped in Damascus to prepare for Eid al-Adha, a major religious holiday. “My daughter was studying chemistry, but opportunities were limited here. Now she might be able to travel and grow in her field.”Her 16-year-old daughter, Rama, echoed Ms. Habshi’s sentiment. “I feel like the government’s actions are changing how Syrians are viewed,” she said. “Now we have a presence outside our country.”For decades, the United States treated Syria as a pariah. That position hardened following the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2011 and the subsequent rise of the Islamic State, a terrorist group that seized parts of the country and carried out attacks overseas.But in recent months, the Trump administration has sought better relations. Mr. Trump lifted some sanctions on Syria last month and held talks with the new president, Ahmed al-Shara, a former rebel commander with past links to Al Qaeda. It was the first time the leaders of the two countries had met in 25 years.The new Syrian government has pledged to restore stability after more than a decade of war. In return, Washington has sought to leverage the promise of a rapprochement with a number of demands, including the expulsion of “foreign terrorists” from Syria and guarantees that the Islamic State will not be allowed to gain more power, according to the White House.For many Syrians, the travel ban exemption was another sign that the country was once again being accepted by the wider world after decades of isolation.“We’re so happy,” said Tahani Madani, an employee at Syria’s largest commercial bank. “Honestly, it’s hard to even describe our joy. Thank God, things are getting better.” More

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    Islamic State Says It Targeted Syrian Forces in Bomb Attacks

    The extremist group claimed responsibility for two attacks, its first against the new government since the fall of Bashar al-Assad, a war monitoring group said.The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for two bomb explosions, the first time the extremist group has directly targeted the new government since it took over in December, a war monitoring group said.In two statements posted online on Thursday and reported by the SITE Intelligence Group, ISIS claimed that bombs laid by its members had killed and wounded government soldiers and allied militia members.The Syrian government did not report any attacks by ISIS in the area, but announced that it had conducted two raids against Islamic State operatives in the Damascus area in the past week.The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group, reported that one person was killed and three members of the Syrian Army’s 70th Division were wounded when a patrol was hit by a remote-controlled land mine in the east of Sweida Province on Wednesday. The man killed was accompanying the government forces, it said.The two attacks claimed by ISIS took place in the southern province of Sweida, where the group has not been active for the best part of a decade. But the government has struggled to establish security in the province, which is effectively controlled by the Druse minority. Sectarian clashes between local militants and pro-government forces in the province killed more than 100 in late April and early May.The Islamic State, which controlled large parts of Iraq and Syria a decade ago until U.S. and allied Syrian forces largely defeated it, has continued a low-level insurgency in eastern Syria since 2019. But it has shown a renewed vigor since the fall of the dictator Bashar al-Assad in December, plotting attacks even in the capital, Damascus, and claiming responsibility for a car bombing among other attacks in eastern Syria.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Trump envoy praises new Syrian president for ‘counter-ISIS measures’

    Donald Trump’s old friend Thomas Barrack, now serving as the US ambassador to Turkey and special envoy for Syria, praised Syria’s interim president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, after a meeting in Istanbul on Saturday.“I stressed the cessation of sanctions against Syria will preserve the integrity of our primary objective – the enduring defeat of ISIS – and will give the people of Syria a chance for a better future,” Barrack said in a statement, referring to actions taken on Friday by the Trump administration to temporarily suspend sanctions imposed on the government of the former president, Bashar al-Assad, who was deposed by rebel forces led by Sharaa late last year.Syria had been under US sanctions since 1979, which intensified after 2011’s deadly crackdown on peaceful protesters by Assad.“I also commended President al-Sharaa on taking meaningful steps towards enacting President Trump’s points on foreign terrorist fighters, counter-ISIS measures, relations with Israel, and camps and detention centers,” Barrack added.Those conditions put Sharaa in the position of cracking down on his former allies. Sharaa, an Islamist rebel, initially came to Syria from Iraq to fight Assad with the support of the Islamic State, but later broke with the group and pledged allegiance to al-Qaida. He broke with al-Qaida as well, in 2016.His militant group, the al-Nusra Front, rebranded twice, becoming Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, in 2017. HTS was designated a terrorist organization by the United States.“President al-Sharaa praised America’s fast action on lifting sanctions,” Trump’s envoy reported after the talks on Saturday.“This meeting was historic, putting the issue of sanctions – as President Trump has indicated – far behind us, and resulting in joint commitment of both our countries to drive forward, quickly, with investment, development, and worldwide branding of a new, welcoming Syria without sanctions.”Among the projects now possible is a Trump Tower Damascus, proposed as part of an effort to entice the US president into removing sanctions. Trump himself appears to have been impressed by a recent meeting with al-Sharaa in Saudi Arabia; the US president told reporters that the former commander of al-Qaida’s franchise in Syria was a “young, attractive guy, tough guy, you know. Strong past. Very strong past. Fighter.”Barrack, who was indicted by the justice department in 2021 and charged with “unlawful efforts to advance the interests of the United Arab Emirates” during the first Trump administration, was acquitted of all charges after a federal trial in 2022. More

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    Fulfilling a Trump Pledge, U.S. Lifts Some Sanctions on Syria

    President Trump had promised to lift sanctions during his trip to the Middle East, where he met with President Ahmed al-Shara of Syria.The Trump administration on Friday lifted several major sanctions on Syria, a first step toward making good on President Trump’s promise earlier this month to help the country’s new leader establish a stable government after the fall of the brutal dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad last year.The Treasury Department lifted regulations banning U.S. citizens and companies from making most financial transactions with Syrian citizens and entities, including Syria’s central bank, officials said. At the same time, the State Department announced it was suspending for six months other tough sanctions imposed on Syria under the 2019 Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act.Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement that lifting the sanctions would “advance Syria’s recovery and reconstruction efforts” and “facilitate the provision of electricity, energy, water, and sanitation, and enable a more effective humanitarian response” in the country.The Assad government cracked down on an uprising in 2011, setting off a civil war that caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people and forced a mass exodus of Syrians.In December, the Assad regime was finally overthrown by a rebel alliance after more than 10 years of fighting, and Ahmed al-Shara, a rebel leader, became president. Mr. al-Shara once led a branch of Al Qaeda but later broke with the jihadist group, and in recent interviews he has expressed support for democracy, presenting a more pragmatic, nationalist approach to governing.During his trip to Saudi Arabia this month, Mr. Trump agreed to meet with Mr. al-Shara, becoming first U.S. leader in a generation to shake hands with a Syrian head of state.Mr. Trump said he had reached the decision to lift the sanctions on Syria after speaking with Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who backed the anti-Assad insurgency, and Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman.“There is a new government that will, hopefully, succeed in stabilizing the country and keeping peace,” Mr. Trump said in Saudi Arabia on May 13. “That’s what we want to see in Syria.” More

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    Trump’s Vow to Lift Sanctions on Syria Unleashes Hope

    The announcement is a boon for the new government as it looks to rebuild an economy wrecked by a decade of civil war.Salaries would go up. Bread and gasoline would be cheaper. The electricity would come on for more than a few hours per day. The reconstruction of destroyed towns and cities would begin.President Trump’s announcement in a speech in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday that he would lift U.S. sanctions on Syria unleashed hope across the country that life would improve after more than a decade of war and deprivation.“It will put us at ease,” said Sami al-Hajj, a pharmacist. “Before, we were scared for the future, for us and our children. But this will open up opportunities.”Analysts and many others in Syria see lifting U.S. sanctions as crucial to enabling the new government to rebuild an economy decimated by war. The sanctions effectively cut Syria out of the international banking system and isolated it from the global economy, blocking money transfers, restricting imports and barring activity by most international companies.On Wednesday, Mr. Trump also met with Syria’s president, Ahmed al-Shara, a former rebel leader who spearheaded the campaign that toppled the strongman Bashar al-Assad in December. It was the first time in 25 years the leaders of the two countries had met. The conversation, which lasted about half an hour, granted another stamp of recognition to Mr. al-Shara, who is still designated as a terrorist by the U.S. government for his past affiliation with Al Qaeda.In a social media post after the meeting, the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said that Mr. Trump had urged Mr. al-Shara to reach a peace accord with Israel, expel foreign terrorists, help the United States fight the Islamic State and take over detention centers that hold Islamic State militants in northeastern Syria. The secretary of state, Marco Rubio, was expected to meet with Mr. al-Shara’s foreign minister to discuss the details.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Donald Trump says lifting sanctions on Syria ‘gives them a chance of greatness’ – US politics live

    Donald Trump has said that lifting sanctions on Syria “gives them a chance of greatness”.“The sanctions were really crippling, very powerful,” he added. He said the US will drop “all of the sanctions on Syria, which I think will be a good thing.”He said that he is looking to normalise relations with Syria.President Donald Trump continues his visit to the Middle East with a Qatari state visit later today.According to a schedule released by the White House, the president will arrive at Doha’s Hamad International Airport within the next hour, before stopping off to visit Amiri Diwan.He will then arrive at St Regis Doha for the state visit shortly before 4pm local time.Trump is also scheduled to attend a state dinner at the Lusail Palace this evening at 8pm.The meeting between Donald Trump and Syria’s president, Ahmad al-Sharaa, in Saudi Arabia was the culmination of months of diplomacy by the Syrians, as well as their Turkish and Saudi allies, who believed face time with Trump would help end Syria’s international isolation, writes William Christou.Damascus had prepared a pitch to Trump that included access to Syrian oil, reassurances of Israel’s security and a proposal to build a Trump tower in Damascus.A meeting with Trump was seen as a key step towards recognition of the legitimacy of the new authority in Damascus after Bashar al-Assad was ousted as Syria’s president in December.The Trump administration had previously been wary of engaging with Sharaa, a former leader of the Islamist rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.Though sanctions were originally imposed on Assad after his bloody crackdown on peaceful protesters in 2011, the US and other countries retained their economic embargo on Syria as they evaluated the new Islamist-led government in Damascus.The US state department had handed the Syrians an extensive list of conditions to end sanctions and were in the process of negotiating when Trump suddenly announced the lifting of US sanctions on Tuesday night.At the end of his speech to the Gulf Cooperation Council in Riyadh, Trump told leaders in the region that he wants them to forge a Middle East that is “thriving” and the “geographic centre of the world”. He said the “whole world is talking about what you are doing”.He added that it had been a pleasure to spend time with Mohammed bin Salman before he criticised the “fake news” media.Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohammed bin Salman has told Donald Trump that Arab Gulf states were seeking to work with the US to de-escalate tensions in the region, as the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza continues to drag on and destabilise the Middle East.According to a White House spokesperson, Donald Trump called on Syria’s Ahmed al-Sharaa to ‘“deport Palestinian terrorists” and to help the US to prevent the resurgence of Islamic State. He urged Syria to sign onto the Abraham Accords with Israel.Al-Sharaa invited American companies to invest in Syrian oil and gas.During Trump’s speech to Arab leaders, he said he wants a future of “safety and dignity” for Palestinians but warned that was impossible if leaders in Gaza continued down a path of violence.He praised the “constructive role that the leaders in this room have taken trying to bring this conflict to an end”.He also thanked those involved in helping secure the release of Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander.Donald Trump has said that lifting sanctions on Syria “gives them a chance of greatness”.“The sanctions were really crippling, very powerful,” he added. He said the US will drop “all of the sanctions on Syria, which I think will be a good thing.”He said that he is looking to normalise relations with Syria.Donald Trump has said he wants to make a deal with Iran, but it can only go ahead if the regime stops “supporting terror” and abandons its nuclear plans.“Many are watching with envy,” Trump told assembled Arab leaders during a speech and said there “are incredible deals within reach for this region”.He accused the Biden administration of “creating bedlam by being incompetent”.The US president says “people at this table know where my loyalties lie”.In related news, Iran’s deputy foreign minister will meet with European diplomats for nuclear talks in Istanbul on Friday, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Wednesday.Reuters reported on Tuesday that Iran would hold talks on the now moribund 2015 nuclear deal with European parties, which include France, Britain and Germany.Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said Donald Turmp’s decision to lift sanctions on Syria is of historic importance, Turkish state-owned Anadolu news agency reported on Wednesday.Erdoğan met online with Donald Trump, Mohammed bin Salman and Syrian president Ahmed al-Sharaa.Speaking at an investment forum on Tuesday, Trump said that he planned to lift sanctions on Syria after holding talks with Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed bin Salman and Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. “I will be ordering the cessation of sanctions against Syria in order to give them a chance at greatness,” Trump said.Ahmed al-Sharaa’s pitch to woo the US president offered access to Syrian oil, reconstruction contracts and to build a Trump Tower in Damascus in exchange for the lifting of US sanctions on Syria.Though the details of the sanctions relief were still unclear, Sharaa’s team in Damascus was celebrating, writes William Christou in Beirut.“This is amazing, it worked,” said Radwan Ziadeh, a Syrian writer and activist who is close to the Syrian president. He shared a picture of an initial mockup of Trump Tower Damascus. “This is how you win his heart and mind,” he said, noting that Sharaa would probably show Trump the design during their meeting in Riyadh on Wednesday.Donald Trump has met Syrian president Ahmed al-Sharaa in Saudi Arabia after agreeing to lift sanctions on Syria.Despite concerns within sectors of his administration over the Syria’s leaders’ former ties to Al Qaeda, Trump said on Tuesday during a speech in Riyadh he would lift sanctions on Syria. The onetime insurgent leader spent years imprisoned by US forces after being captured in Iraq.The White House says Trump agreed to “say hello” to al-Sharaa before the US leader wraps up his visit to Saudi Arabia and moves on to Qatar.Trump is also scheduled to attend a meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council, the grouping of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. He then sets off for Qatar, the second stop in his Gulf tour. Trump will be honored with a state dinner in Qatar.Al-Sharaa was named president of Syria in January, a month after a stunning offensive by insurgent groups led by al-Sharaa’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, stormed Damascus and ended the 54-year rule of the Assad family.Trump said he decided to meet with al-Sharaa after being encouraged to do so by Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman and Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The president also pledged to lift years-long sanctions on Syria.“There is a new government that will hopefully succeed in stabilizing the country and keeping peace,” Trump said in a wide-ranging foreign policy address Tuesday in which he announced he was lifting the sanctions that have been in place in Syria since 2011. “That’s what we want to see in Syria.”Trump also urged Iran to take a “new and a better path” as he pushes for a new nuclear deal and said he wanted to avoid conflict with Tehran.The United States and Saudi Arabia signed a $142bn arms deal touted by the White House as the “largest defence sales agreement in history” in the first stop of Donald Trump’s four-day diplomatic tour to the Gulf states aimed at securing big deals and spotlighting the benefits of Trump’s transactional foreign policy. More