After decades of being imprisoned by outdated ideologies and hollow slogans that served only the Assad regime, the impact of the changes that have swept across Syria since the fall of Bashar al-Assad is now becoming clear.
These changes are as profound as those experienced by Ahmed al-Sharaa himself during a journey that took him from Idlib to Damascus, then to Riyadh, Ankara, Paris, Moscow, Washington, and elsewhere, and soon to Beijing and London.
Commenting on al-Sharaa’s visit to Washington and his meeting with US President Donald Trump, the American special envoy for Syria, Tom Barrack, described the occasion as a decisive turning point in the modern history of the Middle East and in “Syria’s remarkable transformation from isolation to partnership.”
In his statement, Barrack also stressed the need to “fully repeal Caesar Act sanctions to empower the new Syrian government and to allow the Syrian people and their regional neighbours to not only survive but to thrive.”
Despite growing Arab, regional, and Western engagement with the new Syria and the positive steps taken by al-Sharaa’s government, most recently joining the Global Coalition to Defeat IS (Islamic State), the sanctions imposed under the Caesar Act remain an obstacle to establishing sustainable partnerships, particularly in the economic sphere. This area appears to be a central focus of al-Sharaa’s meetings and those of his ministers with both Arab and international officials.
