The United States' lifting sanctions against Syria would have a much greater impact on the war-torn country's economy than sanctions relief by any other state or entity, as Damascus looks ahead to reconstruction and recovery after 14 years of devastating civil war.

"The US financial system has a lock on money flows globally given the power of the dollar," Julien Barnes-Dacey, director of the Middle East & North Africa program at the European Council on Foreign Relations, told Al-Monitor. "Even if other countries loosen sanctions on Syria, private sector companies will only be willing to move into the country if the US gives a green light as well."

Unlike Assad-era sanctions imposed by Canada, the European Union and the United Kingdom, the measures applied by the United States also include secondary sanctions, implemented in June 2020, that penalize any foreign actor engaging in transactions with the Syrian government, according to Kimberley Donovan, director of the Economic Statecraft Initiative at the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center in Washington, DC.

The secondary sanctions mean that any foreign individual or entity that knowingly transacts with the Syrian government while under sanctions would also face sanctions and asset freezes, contributing to further isolating the country economically by cutting financial ties to the rest of the world.