Senate vote paves way for Trump to repeal Syria’s Caesar sanctions
President Trump is poised to sign bipartisan legislation scrapping the sanctions that were seen as a major obstacle to Syria's economic recovery.
WASHINGTON — The US Senate has voted to repeal the sweeping Caesar Act sanctions on Syria, sending the measure to President Donald Trump’s desk for signature as the war-torn country marks one year since the fall of the Assad regime.
The must-pass defense bill known as the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which passed the Senate by a vote of 77-20 on Wednesday, included a provision requiring the complete repeal of the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act of 2019. The House voted to approve the sprawling 3,000-page bill last week, which Trump now has 10 days to sign.
Signed by Trump in his first term, the Caesar Act was an effort to punish former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his allies Russia and Iran for waging a war that is estimated to have killed more than 500,000 Syrians. The bipartisan law authorized sanctions on anyone supporting Syria’s military or doing business with the government, specifically in the construction, engineering, energy or aviation sectors.
The Caesar Act remained on the books despite Assad’s ouster at the hands of rebel forces led by Syria’s new president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, in December 2024. Sharaa, who met with Trump at the White House last month, urged lawmakers to lift sanctions he said were hindering Syria’s post-war recovery.
The Caesar Act’s inclusion in the NDAA comes after weeks of negotiations between House and Senate leadership and the White House, which had lobbied lawmakers to fully repeal the law in line with Trump’s pledge in May to lift all sanctions on the country. The Trump administration issued two six-month waivers suspending the congressionally mandated Caesar Act, but a permanent repeal was seen as the only way to restore foreign investors’ confidence in Syria.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), the ranking member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.), a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, led the charge in Congress to repeal the Caesar Act without conditions.
“The all-encompassing sanctions regime imposed on Assad is now keeping Syria out in the cold,” Shaheen and Wilson wrote in a Foreign Policy op-ed published Tuesday. “We now have a generational window to repeal the Caesar Act and make one of the most consequential and combustible regions in the world more stable and more aligned with our values and interests.”
The language in the NDAA repeals the Caesar Act without imposing conditions on the Syrian government, as some lawmakers had originally sought. Instead, the US president must issue Congress a report every six months for the next four years detailing Damascus’ progress on key issues, including the expulsion of foreign fighters, respect for minorities and relations with neighboring Israel. The president "may consider" using existing authorities to impose targeted, individual sanctions if the above “certifications” aren’t met for a full one-year period.
