US Congress discusses Syria Sanctions Following Deadly Violence

On June 22, the Financial Services Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. advanced a bill from Representative Mike Lawler, a Republican representing New York.  H.R. 4427 is the Syria Sanctions Accountability Act of 2025, and has prompted Democrats and Republicans to work together in support of the bill, while others of both parties are working against it.

If the bill passes into law, it would allow President Donald Trump to permanently lift key sanctions on Syria in two years if certain conditions are met by the government in Damascus. Among the conditions is the release of political prisoners held by deposed former leader Bashar al-Assad.

Trump previously repealed many sanctions on Syria by executive order.  Trump has met with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, formerly known as Jolani.  Trump became impressed with Sharaa, and in an effort to help the Syrian people rebuild their country and their lives, Trump called for sanctions to be lifted.  The former U.S. sanctions prevented Syrian companies, as well as the government, from doing business with foreign countries for investments and imports.

Despite the humanitarian exemptions under the former sanctions, medical supply companies in Syria at one point could not obtain chemotherapy medications for cancer patients, and the Damascus director of the WHO, Elizabeth Hoff, reported many machines in hospitals across Syria sat idle for lack of repair parts because foreign companies feared the U.S. sanctions.

While many American lawmakers backed Trump’s sanctions relief for Syria, there are elected officials in both parties who are skeptical of the new administration in Damascus, especially following the March massacre on the coast of Syria, and the recent massacre in Sweida, which prompted Israel to carry out airstrikes in Damascus.

The issues have split the congress into two groups, and both camps are a mix of parties.

In one camp, are Democrats and Republicans eager to support Trump’s embrace of President Sharaa and his Islamist government. This group wants to see Syria open up to American business interests, including gas and oil development.  The offshore energy fields in Syria are expected to be among the best in the world, and have not yet been exploited.

The opposite camp, Democrats and Republicans are keen to wait, review and hold the Sharaa government accountable for their governance, which has been met with mixed reviews.  The new Islamist administration and leadership has been met with dissatisfaction by segments of society, and not only along sectarian lines.

Syria has been a socialist, secular political format for about 50 years. There are 18 different sects across Syria, with religious, ethnic and cultural differences, but had been living together until March 2011 when the Assad government cracked down on peaceful protests.

Representative Brad Sherman of California and Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey, both Democrats, worked with Republicans to advance H.R. 4427, while Representative Byron Donalds, Republican of Florida, and Trump supporter, crossed over to help the Democrats in voting ‘no’.

Lawler told Semafor, “I believe it is foolish to immediately remove all sanctions without a truly stable situation on the ground,” pointing to a possible “coup or a collapse of this fledgling government.”

On June 30, the U.S. Department of the Treasury implemented Trump’s executive order removing U.S. sanctions on Syria in support of the new Syrian government and its people. However, sanctions against Assad and his associates would continue to hold the former regime accountable for crimes and atrocities.

The U.S. sanctions were put in place over time and in response to many events. One set of sanctions were called ‘The Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act of 2019’, and was passed by Trump.

‘Caesar Sanctions’ were prompted by a set of photographs of emaciated and dead prisoners held in the notorious political prison Saydnaya.  Hundreds of thousands were held there for years, and many died there and were buried in mass graves. Prisoners had no charges, no legal representation, and no family visits.

Some of those held had been in a street protest, and others had simply clicked ‘Like’ on a Facebook post critical of Assad and his regime.

When Assad fled in the early hours of December 8, 2024 the guards of the prison fled as well, but left the cell doors locked.  Family and friends of prisoners began arriving at Saydnaya almost immediately breaking down doors to release those lucky few who had survived.

One man from Idlib searched among the prison survivors for his four brothers, but never found them. Finally, the family was able to hold a formal funeral service for the men, although they would have no headstones memorializing their brief lives on earth. The family could have closure for their loss, but without bodies to bury.

One Democrat group, calling themselves ‘No Dem Left Behind’ on social media wrote on the X platform, “The House Financial Services Committee is voting TODAY on H.R. 4427, a dangerous AIPAC-backed bill that would EXPAND deadly sanctions on Syria and lock in suffering until 2028. This is collective punishment, plain and simple. Every minute counts. Use your voice. Stand for peace. Stand for humanity.”

It is surprising they would lobby the U.S. Congressional vote against a bill supposedly supported by AIPAC. Usually, elected officials on Capitol Hill line up to vote in favor of any AIPAC-supported bill.

AIPAC was exposed in the 2006 paper by John J. Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago’s Department of Political Science and Stephen M. Walt of Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government who contend that the centerpiece of U.S. Middle East policy is its intimate relationship with Israel. The authors argue that although often justified as reflecting shared strategic interests or compelling moral imperatives, the U.S. commitment to Israel is due primarily to the activities of the “Israel Lobby.” The paper goes on to describe the various activities that pro-Israel groups have undertaken in order to shift U.S. foreign policy in a pro-Israel direction.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is seemingly the unofficial director of policy at AIPAC.  Netanyahu recently ordered airstrikes on the military headquarters in Damascus, in broad daylight, and with heavy civilian traffic passing by the landmark building.

This strike was in response to a serious situation unfolding in Sweida, the home to thousands of Druze, a religious minority in Syria, as well as in Israel. There is an investigation ongoing into what exactly happened in Sweida which resulted in about 500 deaths, including an American citizen from Oklahoma.

Republican Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma expressed his concern when told one of his constituents had been killed in Syria.  According to eyewitnesses, and videos, the American and every male member of his large family were executed by security forces.

The Damascus government may find the killers were a rogue armed group not under the central government’s authority. The report has not been completed.

During the 14-year civil war in Syria, Carolyn Leonard of Oklahoma City wrote to her Senator James Lankford many times on behalf of friends living in Syria who told her a story about actual events on the ground, which the U.S. mainstream media had never exposed to the American public, who were funding part of the Obama-supported civil war in Syria.

Lankford repeatedly replied to Leonard, a well-known author, that he supported the Free Syrian Army in their quest to topple the Syrian leader Assad.  He inferred her friends living in Syria must be misinformed.

On December 8, 2024 Lankford’s ‘Freedom Fighters’ won, but there are elected officials like Lawler who want to wait and see how those freedom fighters behave now that they are governing 20 million people.