Syrian sanctions raised by Trump while experts see the opportunity for American leverage

Earlier this week, President Donald Trump signed an executive decree raising most American sanctions against Syria, in a move, experts say they reflect increasing recognition within the administration that Syria, long a battlefield for Iranian influence and Islamist terrorism, could now offer the United States a rare opportunity to recover the regional effect, of the counter Israel and Jordan.

During a White House Press Point on Monday, press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, told journalists: “This is another promise made and promise held by this president,” she said, referring to the recent Trump meeting with Syria’s new transition chief Ahmed Al-Sharaa, during a trip to Saudi Arabia. “He undertook to support a stable, unified and peaceful Syria with herself and her neighbors.”

“The sanctions have done their job,” said Fox News Digital David Schenker, former deputy secretary of state of business in the Middle East and now the main member of the Washington Institute. “They paralyzed overall. There is no economic life in the country. But Trump gives Syria a chance to succeed.”

Trump signs Syria lifting sanctions

President Donald Trump meets members of the Juventus football club in the White House oval office on June 18, 2025. (AP photo / Alex Brandon)

Javed Ali, former senior official of the National Security Council and professor at the University of Michigan, told Fox News Digital: “It is a strategic calculation. A Syria which no longer hosts Iranian proxies, cooperates on counter-terrorism and integrates with Arab neighbors serves American interests on each front.”

According to Schenker, Syria has taken measures that the United States has long requested: allow inspections of the IAEA and the organization for the ban on chemical weapons, sharing information on the Islamic State and cooperating with American liaison officers on the fight against terrorism. “These groups declared Al-Sharaa an unfaithful. They are themselves attacked by the Islamic State,” he noted.

President Donald Trump meets Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in this photo published on May 14, 2025. (Saudi news agency / Document via Reuters)

For the United States, the issues extend far beyond the sanctions. Schenker said that a stable Syria focusing on education and social services, rather than military construction, would be much less fertile for the Islamic State or Iranian influence.

Ali described the current moment as part of a wider Trump strategy: “Now, with Assad disappeared, it is another blow for the Islamic Republic of Iran. This creates an opportunity to merge the Sunni Arab states – either around the Abraham agreements, or a growing anti -Irane coalition.”

The American army still maintains a small but critical in Syria – around 1,000 soldiers out of three to four bases in the northeast – providing vital information and rapid strike capacity. “This imprint was one of our most important terrorist outposts,” said Ali. “We have seen several targeted operations this year only.”

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei welcomes Syrian President Bashar Assad to Tehran, Iran, February 25, 2019. (Office of the Iranian supreme chief via AP, file)

Trump asks Syria to join the Abraham agreements, to normalize links with Israel in exchange for relief of sanctions

However, he said that a deeper cooperation could bring new complications. “There is always a risk that links deepening, the United States could reduce its presence-or Al-Sharaa could ask us to retreat,” said Ali. “This could have an impact on our ability to monitor jihadist activity or manage the tens of thousands of Islamic State detainees still in camps kept by the SDF forces.”

Meanwhile, the diplomatic implications of Trump’s decision attract global attention. The new management of Syria has publicly moved from Iran, blocked the Hezbollah weapons expeditions and would have dismantled several Iranian military posts across the country.

“The president really focuses on the expansion of the Abraham agreements,” said Schenker. “He considers Syria as the next possible candidate.”

NSC spokesperson Taylor Rogers told Fox News Digital. “President Trump is working on lasting peace in the Middle East, which includes the support of a stable, unified and peaceful Syria with itself and its neighbors.

A masked Islamic State terrorist holds the Islamic State flag in 2015. (Images of History / Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

However, normalization with Israel remains politically heavy. Syria officially remains at war with the Jewish state, and although Sharaa has hinted at the ceasefire lines before 1974, jihadist factions and Islamist groups in Syria remain firmly opposed. “There have already been assassination attempts on Sharaa,” said Schenker. “It will become more difficult if it goes from non-be-in to full standardization.”

Charles Lister, director of the Syria program at the Middle East Institute, told Fox News Digital: “Syria has always been an open wound in the center of the region – an instability engine … But if it is stabilized now, it unlocks a wider regional integration.

The Syrians meet in Place Omeyyad to celebrate the collapse of 61 years of rule of the Baath party in Damascus on December 9, 2024. (Murat Sengul / Anadolu via Getty Images)

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Despite encouraging signs on the diplomatic track – such as reported rear channel talks and reduced rhetoric – Israeli air strikes on Syrian territory continued, hundreds of people this year only. The new management of Syria has not responded militarily, but the tensions remain high.

“The facts on the ground do not yet reflect the progress made behind closed doors,” said Lister. “We just have to hope that these two dynamics meet in the middle, and things are also calming on the ground.”