SOCIAL POST: US Launches Financial Warfare on Syria Under the Guise of Sanctions Suspension
Washington's sanctions' revocation is in reality ushering in a new phase of sanctions-based financial warfare on Damascus.
On 30 June, US President Trump issued Executive Order 14115 which revokes six major Syria-related sanctions regimes in place since 2004 and terminates the national emergency that underpinned decades of economic policy against the Syrian state. Although presented as a humanitarian measure to benefit Syrians the move is a strategic act of financial warfare. It’s a calculated shift in the architecture of pressure not a reversal. The aim is to fracture Syria's sovereignty, weaken ties with Iran & force it to align with the emerging US and Israeli-led regional order.
The revocation removes the Syrian Sanctions Regulations from the Code of Federal Regulations and legalises a wide range of previously prohibited activities. US financial institutions may now process transactions with Syrian banks (ex. the Central Bank). Commercial exports of food medicine & related goods no longer require specific licences. This veneer of liberalisation however conceals a far more insidious logic. The sanctions relief is tightly coupled with the continued and expanded enforcement of Executive Order 13894 which now serves as the main legal scaffold for targeting Syrian and Iran-linked actors. On the same day OFAC re-designated 139 individuals and entities previously sanctioned under the revoked authorities reaffirming the continuity of coercion under a new banner.
The structure is deliberate. While unblocking select economic sectors the US has preserved full discretion to sanction any actor linked to the Syrian security state Iranian logistics Hezbollah and resistance activity. The political message is unambiguous. Syria may recover economically only by dismantling its strategic alliances particularly with Tehran and by muting any response to Israeli occupation or military aggression. This is the operational form of what the State Department now calls targeted relief. It is economic blackmail. The goal is to create an incentive structure that punishes defiance and rewards submission.
Under this logic Syria is expected to refrain from objecting to the annexation of the Golan Heights and remain silent in the face of repeated Israeli airstrikes against its territory. The so-called Abraham Shield concept effectively proposes a conditional security guarantee for Damascus in exchange for political docility.
The US does not demand peace only silence. This model mirrors the Israeli normalisation approach with other Arab states where economic access is traded for recognition and restraint. For Turkey as well a neutralised and economically dependent Syria is preferable to a sovereign and militarised one aligned with Iran. The interests converge even if the methods diverge. The regional vision is clear. A fragmented Syria unable to project power excluded from strategic autonomy and restructured to serve as a buffer zone between US clients and rival blocs.
But Syria has little to gain from walking into this trap. Access to the US financial system is not indispensable. The state can deepen trade in non-dollar currencies through BRICS mechanisms and bolster its military capacity with continued support from Iran and Russia. The current sanctions relief framework explicitly prohibits such strategic recovery. It invites Syria to disarm economically and militarily in exchange for temporary financial access under American terms.
The rational course is not confrontation for its own sake but strategic diversification. Syria should pursue calibrated ties with all actors seeking economic recovery through BRICS Gulf and East Asian channels while preserving deterrent capabilities and resisting efforts to strip it of political autonomy. Accepting US terms now would institutionalise defeat. Rejecting them preserves the option of future sovereignty even at immediate cost. The rational course is not confrontation for its own sake but strategic diversification. This is not the end of sanctions, but a new phase. The policy of pressure has simply adopted a more flexible and selective form. Syria must see through the illusion of relief and act accordingly.