Providing for the Revocation of Syria Sanctions
This Executive Order (EO 14312), signed June 30, 2025 and effective July 1, 2025, directs major changes to U.S. sanctions and other restrictions related to Syria. It terminates the broad Syria-related national emergency that underpinned a series of prior Syria EOs and revokes those specific Syria-blocking EOs, while shifting U.S. policy toward engagement with the new Syrian government under President Ahmed al-Sharaa. At the same time the order preserves and expands targeted tools to hold accountable individuals and networks tied to war crimes, human-rights abuses, chemical weapons use, illicit captagon trafficking, and other malign activity associated with the former Assad regime. Practically, the order authorizes suspension or waiver of several statutory sanctions (including parts of the Caesar Act, the Chemical and Biological Weapons Control and Warfare Elimination Act (CBW Act), and provisions of the Syria Accountability Act), opens avenues for relaxing export controls for certain items on the Commerce Control List, and instructs agencies to pursue related actions (including designating extremist groups and persons). It also creates a narrower, continuing sanctions authority focused on specific persons and activities (amending EO 13894) to ensure accountability even as broad Syria sanctions are revoked.
Key Points
- 1Termination and revocation: Effective July 1, 2025, the national emergency declared in EO 13338 and six subsequent Syria-related executive orders are terminated and revoked, removing the legal basis for broad Syria-wide blocking sanctions that flowed from those orders.
- 2Preservation of pending/previous actions: Under the National Emergencies Act, the termination does not affect actions or proceedings that were taken or acts committed before July 1, 2025; rights, duties, and penalties that matured before that date remain in effect.
- 3Expanded targeted sanctions and accountability (amend EO 13894): The order broadens and refocuses EO 13894 to authorize blocking (asset-freezing) sanctions against persons responsible for threatening Syria’s stability, serious human-rights abuses, illicit captagon production/proliferation, disappearance of U.S. nationals during the former regime, former Assad officials and their proxies, adult family members of designated persons, and those who materially support these actors.
- 4Statutory waivers and reviews:
- 5- Caesar Act: The Secretary of State (with Treasury) will examine criteria under section 7431(a) and may suspend, in whole or part, Caesar Act sanctions; any suspension requires a briefing to congressional committees within 30 days and the Secretary can reimpose sanctions if conditions change.
- 6- CBW Act: The President certifies a “fundamental change” in Syrian leadership/policy and waives specific CBW Act restrictions (foreign assistance, USG credit, certain export controls, and banking restrictions); the waiver takes effect 20 days after the Secretary of State transmits required reports to Congress.
- 7- Syria Accountability Act: The President waives certain provisions to allow exports of items on the Commerce Control List (supplement No. 1) and a specific statutory subsection; the Secretary of State must report to Congress.
- 8Counterterrorism measures and designations: The Secretary of State (with Treasury and DOJ) is directed to designate al-Nusrah Front / Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) and as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT), and to designate Abu Muhammad al-Jawlani (Ahmed al-Sharaa) as an SDGT. The Secretary must also review Syria’s State Sponsor of Terrorism designation under the relevant statutes.
- 9Implementation and delegation: Secretaries of State, Treasury, and Commerce are authorized to adopt rules, redelegate functions, and take necessary implementation steps; agencies must act consistent with law and appropriations. The State Department will bear publication costs.