Biden administration to announce sanctions waivers for Syrian Kurds, Sunni opposition-held areas
Sanctions exemptions are aimed at expediting humanitarian aid and diminishing the economic damage in certain areas.
The Biden administration is expected to announce this week that Kurdish and opposition-controlled areas in Syria are to be exempt from sanctions against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, according to several sources familiar with the decision speaking not for attribution to Al-Monitor.
The exemptions from the Caesar Syrian Civilian Protection Act will be formally relayed by Ethan Goodrich, the deputy assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs who covers the Syria dossier, the sources said. The Office of Foreign Assets Control waiver on all sanctions for the areas outside the Syrian regime’s control will not cover oil and gas, the sources added.
Idlib, the northwest region controlled by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the Sunni militant group that is on the State Department’s list of terrorist organizations, is not included in the waiver. Nor is Afrin, the Kurdish majority enclave that was invaded and occupied by Turkish forces in January 2018.
Goldrich was in Ankara today briefing his Turkish counterpart, Selcuk Unal, before traveling to Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. He is then expected to proceed to northeast Syria where he is due to meet with Mazlum Kobane, the commander in chief of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), and Ilham Ahmed, the executive president of the Syrian Democratic Council, a top political body.
