Web of sanctions hinders US aid to post-Assad Syria
A patchwork of preexisting sanctions on Syria complicates any effort by the US government to surge aid to the war-battered country.
WASHINGTON — Following the recent collapse of Syria’s regime, the Biden administration is grappling with how to facilitate aid delivery in a country that remains under heavy sanctions and is de facto run by a blacklisted terrorist group.
The fighters who swept through Syria and toppled the brutal dictatorship under Bashar al-Assad on Dec. 8 were led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, an Islamist group that in recent years has controlled the northwestern province of Idlib on the Syrian-Turkish border.
The US government designated HTS as a foreign terrorist organization in 2018 due to its past association with al-Qaeda, and has sanctioned the group’s leader, Abu Mohammed al-Golani.
On Saturday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken confirmed that US officials have been in direct contact with HTS as it works to restore order through an interim government tasked with providing basic services, such as electricity and internet. The group has selected Mohammed al-Bashir, a loyalist technocrat, to serve as caretaker prime minister until March 1.
