Politics

Syria-US rapprochement gives way to cooperation boon

Since Trump began lifting sanctions in May, no time has been wasted. US investment delegations have been flocking to Damascus, and security cooperation has already started.

SANA / AFP

This handout photograph released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) on 10 November 2025, shows US President Donald Trump (L) shaking hands with Syria's President Ahmed al-Sharaa at the White House in Washington DC.

Syria-US rapprochement gives way to cooperation boon

Charles Lister

last update on 13 Nov 2025

Syria’s transitional President Ahmed al-Sharaa made history this past week, becoming the first Syrian leader to visit Washington, DC and meet with a US president inside the White House. The fact that he did so less than a year into Syria’s post-war transition and as a former Al-Qaeda commander made it even more extraordinary.

In his two-day visit, al-Sharaa met President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Dan Caine, leaders from the Senate and House of Representatives and more than 30 CEOs and senior directors from America’s business community.

Since walking into Damascus in December 2024, al-Sharaa and his foreign minister, Asaad al-Shaibani, have achieved remarkable foreign policy successes. Driven by the historic opportunity that change in Syria presents, Damascus has played host to visiting delegations from more than 80 countries and multilateral organisations over the past 11 months.

That represents a wave of official engagement that no post-war country has come anywhere close to matching. But there can be little doubt that Trump’s decision to meet al-Sharaa in May 2025 may prove to be the most consequential achievement of them all.

SPA — US President Donald Trump and Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa during their meeting in Riyadh on May 14, 2025.

Since that historic meeting in Saudi Arabia in May, US-Syria relations have grown considerably. Since the Trump administration began lifting and waiving sanctions in late May, American interest in investment opportunities in Syria has surged. From the oil and gas sector, to technology, construction, logistics, service providers, transportation and finance, US delegations have flocked to Damascus for meetings with al-Sharaa and his cabinet.

The US Chamber of Commerce and the newly established US-Syria Business Council have been instrumental in facilitating introductions and substantive talks. Chevron and ConocoPhillips are in advanced talks with the Energy Ministry. Mastercard has returned to Syria, and Visa is on its way. Google and Meta are both cooperating with the Information Ministry in countering disinformation, among other developments.

Syria’s Minister of Economy, Nidal al-Shaar, presented his government’s vision for a financial system modelled on America’s, while Central Bank Governor Abdulkader Husrieh and Finance Minister Mohammed Barniyeh have been in Washington, DC and New York for official engagements several times in 2025.

Both US and Syrian officials speak enthusiastically about the "game-changing effects" of their joint coordination

For a country once closed off to the world and based primarily on a Socialist economic model, this has been a profound shift. And yet, translating these positive engagements into strategic change continues to be impeded by Congressional Caesar Act sanctions.

Al-Sharaa raised the issue with Trump in the Oval Office and was assured the legislation would be repealed this year. To sweeten the mood, Trump also declared that tariffs on Syria would be reduced from 41% to 10%.

Beyond the economy, the most profound relationship-building between the US and Syria has taken place in the military and intelligence spheres. The first in-person contact between US troops and their new Syrian counterparts took place just five days after Bashar al-Assad's fall on 13 December, when an American national found in a prison was handed over by Mohammed Qanatri.

Just days earlier, he had been part of Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham's (HTS) security apparatus but had since assumed a prominent role within the foreign ministry, serving as a key liaison with the US military and intelligence community. A week later, the commander of the anti-Islamic State (IS) Coalition, Major General Kevin Leahy, was part of the first US diplomatic delegation to meet al-Sharaa in Damascus.

In the months since, the US and Syria have established an increasingly close and operationally effective security and intelligence relationship, run in Damascus through the Ministry of Interior (led by Anas Khattab) and the General Intelligence Directorate (headed by Hussein Salamah).

AFP — This handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) shows Syria's new Interior Minister, Anas Khattab, during an official ceremony in Damascus on March 29, 2025.

Both officials speak enthusiastically about their cooperation with their "American friends"—a message reciprocated by US counterparts who speak passionately about the "game-changing effects" of their joint coordination.

The seeds of joint US-Syrian operations began in May, when a package of US intelligence was provided to Damascus on a large network of tunnels, bunkers and warehouses full of Iranian-provided weaponry controlled by a powerful tribal leader near al-Bukamal in eastern Syria. Days later, Syrian Interior Ministry forces raided the entire complex, seizing everything and capturing all of Iran's prior operatives alive.

The operation's success was "stunning," according to one US official—and the rest is history. Since then, intelligence sharing has deepened, US special forces and intelligence officers are shuffling in and out of Damascus, and Syrian interior ministry forces have partnered with US special forces in at least four raids on Iran-legacy targets and at least six IS targets—one of which killed IS's most senior commander known to be present on Syrian soil. Despite public denials, joint efforts are underway to locate a suitable location for a US operational compound in the Damascus area to permanently coordinate on the ground in Syria.

Delil Souleiman/AFP — Troops from the US-led coalition against Islamic State (IS) training SDF fighters in Syria's north-eastern Hasakah province on 7 September 2022.

To consolidate the progress in security ties, Syria has now joined the Global Coalition to Defeat IS. Agreeing to do so was not an easy decision for Syria's transitional government, both due to domestic popular opinion remaining sceptical of the US and due to the sensitivity within several small foreign jihadist factions that remain outside of the government's military apparatus.

Within Syria's security and intelligence world, there is an expectation that their decision to join the coalition will draw some of the more problematic elements into stirring trouble, creating short-term security challenges but perhaps also an opportunity to 'clean house.'

Clearly, US-Syria relations have experienced a transformational period since Assad's fall. Despite al-Sharaa's "strong past," as Trump put it, the strategic opportunity that a peaceful, stable, and internationally integrated Syria presents has driven engagement, confidence-building, and the emergence of an alliance.

Ultimately, however, Syria remains fragile, and if its transition is to continue consolidating, stabilising, and expanding its control and representation, the Syrian economy must get back on its feet. There are many factors that will help that to occur, but the biggest by far is the repeal of the Caesar Act within Congress. Should that legislation remain in place, Syria's future—and the historic opportunity that its new posture in the world presents— will be at great risk.

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