The US Senate has voted to repeal the Caesar Act sanctions on the former Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad, US republican senator Joe Wilson said.
The repeal was voted for as part of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). This will now be debated between the House of Representatives and the Senate before it becomes law and the repeal takes effect.
Applied in 2019, the Caesar Act blocked nearly all US and international co-operation or engagement with the Assad government, aimed at restricting Syria's economic recovery. Its repeal should, in theory, enable foreign investment and aid to return to the country under the government headed by President Ahmed al-Sharaa that was formed in March 2025.
Syria's foreign minister Asaad al-Shibani reacted to the news early on Friday, describing the Caesar Act as "one of the heaviest burdens that has shackled our nation economically and politically." This vote is "a step that restores Syria's first breaths, and opens a new path towards rebuilding and recovery," al-Shibani said.
The international community, and in particular Washington, have in recent months been trying to support the new Syrian government and rejuvenate its economy. In mid-May, US President Donald Trump promised to lift US sanctions. Later that month, his administration issued a waiver from all existing US sanctions to enable foreign companies to engage in business deals with Syrian state institutions, including the central bank and state-owned oil companies.
In late June, Trump announced broad sanctions relief for Syria by revoking executive orders issued by his predecessors in 2004-11.
Consolidation
Years of conflict and sanctions saw Syria's oil output collapse to below 50,000 b/d, from close to 400,000 b/d, leaving the country heavily reliant on sporadic imports of crude and refined products from Iran.
The gradual easing of sanctions in May has helped put the Syrian oil sector on a gradual path to recovery, and the government is in talks with foreign operators, incuding Shell, to discuss potentially returning to the country.
President al-Sharaa last week signed a decree establishing the Syrian Petroleum Company (SPC), a new state-owned entity that would merge and replace the General Petroleum Corporation and General Refining Corporation, and all their subsidiaries.
The decree stipulates the transfer of all contracts and agreements, along with financial, administrative, and technical rights and commitments, from the two entities to SPC. This is aimed at streamlining operations, ease Syria's entry to global oil and gas markets, and enhance its competitiveness in the sector, the energy ministry said.
