U.S. President Donald Trump has signed an executive order lifting decades-old sanctions on Syria, as part of measures to help the country rebuild after a devastating civil war.

Washington

U.S. President Donald Trump has signed an executive order that lifts decades-old sanctions on Syria, marking a significant shift in U.S. policy towards the country. The order also directs the Secretary of State to review Syria's designation as a state sponsor of terrorism, as well as the terrorist designations of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and its leader, Ahmed al-Shara. 

The lifting of sanctions excludes former Syrian leadership such as Bashar al-Assad and his supporters. This move follows Trump's assurances to Saudi Arabia during his visit to the Gulf states, where he pledged to remove the sanctions to facilitate investment and reconstruction in Syria after years of civil war.

Trump formally orders lifting of Syria sanctions

It's a wide-ranging executive order signed by President Trump. Firstly, it removes the U.S. sanctions program in Syria, but it goes even further. It asks the U.S. Secretary of State to review Syria's designation as a state sponsor of terrorism, to review the designation of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, and also the terrorist designation of its leader, Ahmed al-Shara. So these are significant moves which will effectively remove the U.S. sanctions program on Syria. It does, however, specify that this would not apply to the previous leadership like Bashar al-Assad and those who supported him. But this is a significant step towards the rebuilding of Syria. Now the background to all of this, the key moment, was President Trump's visit to the Gulf states, his first international trip as president of the United States. In his second term, and at a meeting in Riyadh, he assured the Saudi leadership in particular that these sanctions would be removed. He also had a personal meeting with Ahmed al-Shara in Riyadh. Now why the Saudis were so keen on this? They wanted to be able to invest in Syria, to get money into that country, to help rebuild it following that decades-long civil war. They could not do so with U.S. sanctions in place. President Trump pledged then that the sanctions would be lifted, and now he's gone ahead and made good that promise. Mike Hanna, Al Jazeera, Washington.

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