Lifting of Syria sanctions (2025)
Between May and December 2025, the European Union and then the United States dismantled most economic sanctions on Syria, keeping those aimed at the Assad circle, chemical weapons and the captagon trade.
The lifting of Syria sanctions is the dismantling, by the European Union and then the United States, of most economic sanctions on Syria between May and December 2025, leaving in place those aimed at the Assad circle, chemical weapons and the captagon trade. The EU Council decided politically on May 20, 2025 and adopted the legal acts on May 28: every economic measure against Syria falls, except those grounded in security. Twenty-four entities come off the asset freeze list, the Central Bank of Syria among them; no individuals. What stays is the arms embargo, equipment for internal repression, surveillance technology, trafficking in cultural property, and the listings tied to the Assad regime, chemical weapons and the drug trade, extended to June 1, 2026. In Washington, OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Control) issued General License 25 on May 23, 2025. Executive Order 14312 of June 30, 2025 then revoked six founding orders and ended the Syria program effective July 1; more than five hundred persons and entities designated solely on those grounds were delisted. Assad and his circle moved into a new program, PAARSS (Promoting Accountability for Assad and Regional Stabilization Sanctions). The 2019 Caesar Act, which grounded secondary sanctions on anyone supporting the former regime, was repealed without conditions by the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2026, signed in December 2025, with reporting duties to Congress attached. For a credit insurer or a political risk underwriter, the sanctions exclusion clause no longer bars by default a receivable on a Syrian buyer. Screening carries on: a counterparty can still be listed under counterterrorism authorities or PAARSS, and a correspondent bank can turn the payment away out of caution. Country risk, transfer and political violence, can be underwritten again.
Textbook case: in October 2025 an exporter from Lyon ships 2,400,000 euros of turbines to a manufacturer in Aleppo, payable at 180 days. Its credit insurance policy covers 90 percent of the receivable after a 50,000 euro deductible. The buyer does not pay. Screening on the day of loss shows no listing on the European Union list or under PAARSS (Promoting Accountability for Assad and Regional Stabilization Sanctions). The sanctions exclusion therefore does not bite, and the indemnity comes to (2,400,000 - 50,000) x 90% = 2,115,000 euros. Had the buyer's chief executive been listed for the captagon trade and held 60 percent of the shares, the buyer would be deemed controlled, the receivable frozen, and the payment suspended until a license is granted.
- Council of the European Union, press release of 28 May 2025 on lifting economic sanctions on Syria
Syria sanctions relief, Caesar Act repeal, Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act, Executive Order 14312, EO 14312, PAARSS, Promoting Accountability for Assad and Regional Stabilization Sanctions
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