UN Lifts Sanctions on Syria’s President as White House Visit Beckons

On 6 November, the UN Security Council agreed to remove Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa and Interior Minister Anas Khattab from a UN sanctions list, four days before al-Sharaa’s planned state visit to Washington. The two men were listed under the UN’s ISIS (Da’esh) and al-Qaeda sanctions regime, in 2013 and 2014 respectively, for their allegiance to al-Qaeda, though they have since disavowed the group and even fought it.

Discussions about adapting UN sanctions have been going on since the Assad regime fell in December 2024. The conversation turned seriously to delisting in May, when U.S. President Donald Trump, at the urging of Gulf Arab leaders, pledged to lift all U.S. sanctions on Syria and al-Sharaa’s former rebel group, Hei’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which was dissolved in January. Though the EU quickly followed suit, deliberations in the Security Council moved more slowly.

The U.S. first circulated a draft resolution on sanctions relief in June. The text proposed removing al-Sharaa, Khattab and HTS from the UN sanctions list. It also sought to clarify that the Syrian government was not targeted by the assets freeze (even if listed individuals were working in it), so as to deter banks from imposing excessive restrictions on their dealings with the state. Finally, the draft suggested a targeted exemption in the arms embargo to enable the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and demining groups to operate in Syria without violating sanctions on dual-use goods.

Months of negotiations followed, with China raising concerns that the Council was moving too fast without obtaining more concrete achievements on counter-terrorism from al-Sharaa. Beijing is concerned by the presence of Uighur militants in Syria – part of a larger group of foreign fighters who battled Assad alongside HTS – whom China sees as a national security threat. The Uighurs have strong ties with Syria’s new leadership and have been integrated into the Syrian army despite remaining under UN terror sanctions. 

Under pressure from the White House to remove the sanctions ahead of al-Sharaa’s state visit, the U.S. mission abruptly shifted course in early November. The Trump administration wanted to signal good-will to al-Sharaa, while also avoiding the optics of welcoming him while he was classified by the UN as a terrorist, particularly as the visit is set to focus on Syria joining the U.S.-led global coalition to defeat ISIS. U.S. diplomats submitted a revised text that only delisted al-Sharaa and Khattab and pushed for an immediate Council vote. By narrowing the resolution’s scope, Washington secured the Council’s backing; Beijing abstained from the vote as the text failed to fully address its concerns.

Removing al-Sharaa and Khattab from UN sanctions is an important step forward for the international legitimacy of Syria’s new government. But it falls short of easing the technical and financial restrictions that could have a material impact on Syria’s reconstruction. The Council should continue to negotiate these as well as consider delisting HTS, even if momentum stalls now that al-Sharaa is no longer under sanctions.