The US gave Syria a list of conditions it hopes to meet Damascus in exchange for partial sanctions relief, such as preventing foreigners from playing the role of senior management.
The US Deputy Director of the Levant and Syrian Natasha Francesti gave Syrian Foreign Minister Assad al-Shabani the list of requests during a face-to-face meeting on bystanders at the Syrian Donors Conference held in Brussels on March 18th.
Neither the list nor the in-person meetings have been the first high-level direct contact between Damascus and Washington since US President Donald Trump took office on January 20th, but have not been previously reported.
Reuters spoke to six sources of the story for this story. This is a familiarity with the issue, two sources: two US officials, a Syrian source, a local diplomat and a two source, Washington. They all requested anonymity to discuss high levels of diplomacy.
Among the conditions set by the US were the destruction and “anti-terrorism” of the remaining chemical weapons stores in Syria, two US officials, Syrian sources, and sources from both Washington.
Another demand was to ensure that foreign fighters were not placed in senior roles in Syrian governing structures, one Washington source said.
Syria has already appointed former levels of foreigners, including Uighurs, Jordanians and Turks, to the Ministry of Defense. This is a move that surprised foreign governments.
Washington also asked Syria to appoint a liaison to Syria to support his efforts to find Austin Chiese, a US journalist who went missing in Syria more than a decade ago, according to two Washington officials and both sources.
In return for meeting all requests, Washington said it would provide some sanctions relief, according to all six sources. The sources said they did not specify what relief will be provided and Washington did not provide a specific timeline to meet the criteria.
Syrian Foreign Office and the US State Department did not respond to requests for comment.
Syria is eager to bail out sanctions to launch an economy that has been ruined by nearly 14 years of war. Meanwhile, the US, the UK and Europe have imposed severe sanctions on people, businesses and all sectors of Syrian economy in order to narrow down the now-occurring leader Bashar al-Assad.
Some of these sanctions have been temporarily suspended and have limited effectiveness. The US issued a six-month general license in January to ease the flow of humanitarian assistance, but the move was not considered enough to allow Qatar to pay public sector salaries through Syrian central banks.
Syrian officials, including Al Shaibani and interim president Ahmed Al Shalaa, have called for the sanctions to be lifted entirely, saying it would be unfair to continue to defeat Al Assad after the Lightning rebels fell in December.
Ongoing policy
Provision of demand is the clearest signal of the Trump administration’s policy on Syria.
The US statement focuses on support for minorities and accusations of “Islamic extremism,” but otherwise made little statement, leaving behind uncertainty about the future of sanctions and whether US forces will remain deployed in the Northeast.
This is partly due to Washington’s different views on how to approach Syria. Some White House officials are eager to take a stronger stance, pointing to it as a reason for minimizing the new Syrian leader’s previous ties with al-Qaeda, according to diplomats and US sources who are familiar with the policy-making process.
The State Department is seeking a more nuanced approach to Syria, including potential engagement, sources added.
This difference led to intense deliberations between the White House and the State Department about Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s statement earlier this month, denounced violence in western Syria, where hundreds of Alawi minority civilians (the sect of Al Assad) were killed after ambushing new security forces to the previous royal family by armed loyalists.
Rubio denounced “radical Muslim terrorists, including foreign jihadists,” who carried out the violence, and called on Syrian interim authorities to hold the perpetrators accountable.
The White House had sought a more harsh language statement, but the State Department pushed back to increase the balance, a source familiar with the process said.
Last month, Reuters reported that Israel was lobbying the US to weakly decentralize Syria.
The administration is yet to fully agree with Israel’s efforts to discourage the US from involvement with Syria’s new rulers, sources say that some Israeli concerns have gained more traction with some US officials.
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