Syrian foreign minister meets US officials in Washington

WASHINGTON

US Treasury and State department officials held talks Thursday in Washington with Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shaibani, the Treasury Department announced.

“Treasury is working with Syria to responsibly and safely reconnect its economy to the global financial system while combating the financing of terrorism,” it said in a post on the US social media company X.

Those present in the meeting included US Ambassador to Türkiye and Special Envoy for Syria Tom Barrack; senior Treasury officials; Qutaiba Idlbi, director of American affairs at the Syrian Foreign Ministry and other members of Shaibani’s delegation.

The visit marks the first by a Syrian foreign minister to the US in more than 25 years.

The Syrian minister also held talks with US senators to discuss permanently lifting the Caesar sanctions on Syria.

Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, ranking member of the Foreign Relations Committee, said she led a bipartisan group of lawmakers in a meeting with Shaibani and Barrack. Participants included senators Roger Wicker, Chris Coons, Joni Ernst, Jacky Rosen, Markwayne Mullin, Richard Blumenthal and Andy Kim.

Shaheen said the group affirmed a “common interest between the United States and Syria in a stable, economically prosperous Syria and the importance of Syria’s future for regional stability.”

Participants noted that sanctions are prohibiting urgently needed investment in Syria’s economy, according to a statement

“Syria’s economy is in crisis, and its authorities need financial resources to maintain basic functions of governance,” Shaheen said in the statement. “If we are too slow to act, we risk plunging Syrians back into conflict, which is in no one’s interest except for Russia and Iran. … Now is the time for the Senate to act by repealing the Caesar Act sanctions.”

Shaibani also met Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch.

“We discussed steps that are essential for Syria to ensure their full access to the international economy. Syria has an opportunity to build a stable democracy, something the region desperately needs right now, and I am hopeful they are on the right track,” Risch wrote on X following the meeting.

The talks come as Damascus seeks the permanent lifting of US sanctions that remain in effect despite recent easing measures. Much of the sanctions stems from the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act of 2019, which sanctioned the Assad government for war crimes during the civil war.

President Donald Trump issued an executive order June 30 to terminate the US sanctions program on Syria, though sanctions tied to human rights violations, chemical weapons activity and drug trafficking remain.

The move followed Trump’s May 2025 announcement at an investment forum in Saudi Arabia that he would lift the “brutal and crippling” Syria sanctions. One day later, he held a landmark meeting in Saudi Arabia with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa, the first between US and Syrian leaders in 25 years.

Bashar al-Assad, who ruled Syria for nearly a quarter century, fled to Russia on Dec. 8, 2024, marking the end of the Baath Party’s decades-long rule, which began in 1963.

Al-Sharaa, who led anti-regime forces that ousted Assad, was declared president for a transitional period in late January.