Congress Poised to Rescind Caesar Act Sanctions on Syria
The proposed legislation would dismantle economic penalties originally imposed to hold Bashar al-Assad's former government accountable for documented atrocities during the civil war.
"The Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act of 2019...is hereby repealed," the draft document states.
Passage through the House of Representatives remains necessary before the measure takes effect.
The sanctions relief, however, comes with stringent conditions attached. Presidential certification to multiple congressional committees would be mandatory—first within a 90-day window, followed by biannual reports spanning four years—confirming Syria is actively dismantling ISIS (Daesh) networks and other extremist organizations, safeguarding minority populations, refraining from cross-border aggression, fighting financial crimes and terror funding, pursuing accountability for previous regime atrocities, and curbing narcotics manufacturing.
Should two consecutive presidential assessments conclude Syria has failed these benchmarks, economic restrictions would automatically return.
Additional Syria-focused mandates appear throughout the defense bill. One requires the US Defense Department to brief Congress on ISIS detention infrastructure within Syrian territory. Another compels both the Defense Department and US Central Command to document ongoing adjustments to American military deployments, installations, and operations across the country.
The Caesar Act, which became law in 2019, established far-reaching secondary sanctions that blocked American and international parties from cooperation with Syria's government or participating in reconstruction efforts, directly responding to Assad's systematic human rights violations and chemical weapons deployment.
Washington has already begun dismantling its sanctions architecture, removing prominent Syrian figures from UN and American terrorism-related blacklists. Complete sanctions termination requires legislative approval, though the administration retains authority to grant 180-day exemptions—a power exercised this past November.
President Donald Trump initiated the sanctions rollback following discussions with Syrian leader Ahmad al-Sharaa in Saudi Arabia during May. He publicly declared sanctions relief immediately after their meeting, then formalized comprehensive sanctions removal through executive action in June.
The US State Department has actively supported Syria's new leadership by rescinding the Foreign Terrorist Organization classification of the al-Nusrah Front, alternatively identified as Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, in July and striking Sharaa from the Specially Designated Global Terrorist registry on Nov. 7.
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