Syrian researcher: lifting of Caesar sanctions is not driver of change in Syria

Despite the announcement of lifting U.S. sanctions imposed under the “Caesar Act,” Syrians have not witnessed any tangible improvement in areas controlled by the transitional government. Violations against civilians, killings, looting, and ongoing security chaos continue unabated. This reality raises fundamental questions about the reasons behind lifting the sanctions, the objectives of the United States in taking this step, its actual repercussions on the country, and what a government accused of committing such violations can do after international restrictions are removed.

In this context, Syrian political researcher Dr. Samira al-Maybed explains that U.S. sanctions linked to the Caesar Act were originally imposed to protect civilians. They were not intended to target the Syrian state or the Syrian people, but rather directly targeted the conduct of the political system that violated civilians’ rights and breached international law.

Al-Maybed pointed out that the core text of the Caesar Act clearly specified the individuals and entities subject to sanctions, most of which exited both the political and military scenes with the end of Bashar al-Assad’s system.

Accordingly, Dr. al-Maybed stresses that Caesar sanctions were never the real reason preventing Syria’s recovery or progress. Therefore, their removal after the collapse of the regime they were imposed upon constitutes a legal and political inevitability. However, she emphasizes that this removal, in itself, does not serve as a catalyst for recovery or development, as the sanctions were merely a tool of economic and political pressure whose effect expired with the end of the targeted entity.

From this perspective, Dr. Samira al-Maybed believes that assessing the political and developmental landscape after the lifting of sanctions must begin with a deeper reality: the absence of the Syrian state’s frameworks, its constitution, and its institutions. State institutions, in her view, are the only bodies capable of generating the country’s economic capacity. They are closely linked to security and stability, as well as to the existence and enforcement of laws conditions that cannot be guaranteed without an effective constitution.

Violations Against Civilians Continue

She explains that these conditions have not yet been met, particularly following the spread of Ahmad al-Sharaa’s (“al-Julani”) factions, as violations against civilians persist and security deterioration continues amid a near-total absence of state institutions. She notes that what has emerged over the past year is a factional reality based on authoritarian leaderships that rely on mediation, kinship, or loyalty structures that fail to meet the requirements for building a modern state.

In addition, Dr. al-Maybed points to the constitutional vacuum as one of the most significant obstacles to any genuine path toward change. She stresses that a return to the pre-revolution era is impossible, and that drafting a modern, foundational Syrian constitution grounded in reality is the only viable path to restructuring institutions, ensuring the inclusion of all segments of Syrian society, and achieving the goals of the Syrian revolution.

Dr. Samira al-Maybed concludes that the removal of sanctions, from her perspective, has not been and will not be a driver of change, nor will it alter the prevailing state of political chaos imposed by a de facto authority presenting itself as a “temporary government” without possessing any genuine legitimacy.

ANHA