President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order lifting US sanctions on Syria, to allow Syria to rebuild after a prolonged civil war.
Mr Trump announced during his visit to Riyadh last month that he would be giving Syria near-total sanctions relief. But unwinding the US laws and designations is a complex process and requires Congressional action in some cases.
Brad Smith, acting undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence at the US Treasury Department, said "the significance of this moment cannot be overstated".
"Today's actions … will end [Syria's] isolation from the international financial system, setting the stage for global commerce and galvanising investments from its neighbours in the region, as well as from the United States," Mr Smith said.
Mr Trump's executive order takes effect on Tuesday. The text tells of "developments over the past six months, including the positive actions taken by the new Syrian government under President Ahmad Al Shara."
Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Al Shibani said on X that the termination of the Syria sanctions programme allows for "long-awaited reconstruction and development".
Thomas Barrack, the US ambassador to Turkey and special envoy to Syria, said Syria needed "to be given a chance".
"And that’s what’s happened. What you have this afternoon is the culmination of a very tedious, detailed, excruciating process of how you unwrap these sanctions," he told reporters on Monday.
State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said the executive order reaffirms Mr Trump's "belief that the Syrian people deserve a future of safety and prosperity".
The executive order will remove sanctions on Syria while maintaining sanctions on former president Bashar Al Assad.
"His associates, human rights abusers, drug traffickers, persons linked to chemical weapons activities, ISIS and their affiliates, and Iranian policies" will remain under sanctions, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.
Syria was originally designated a state sponsor of terrorism by the Carter administration in 1979, when Hafez Al Assad, Bashar's father, ruled the country. Further sanctions were imposed in 2004 and in 2011, when civil war broke out.
While Mr Trump is easing many sanctions by executive order, undoing all of them would require Congress to repeal the 2019 Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act, which penalises almost anyone who tries to do business with Syria.
Two senators this month introduced legislation to overturn the Caesar Act.
The Assad regime fell last December after a lightning offensive by groups led by Hayat Tahrir Al Sham. HTS's leader, Mr Al Shara, was chosen as transitional President.
The new government in Damascus lobbied for western countries to remove sanctions levied during the Assad regime's rule. Although Washington has been wary of the new government, because HTS was previously allied with Al Qaeda, Mr Trump said the US would remove sanctions.
Stephen Rapp, former ambassador-at-large for war crimes, welcomed the development.
“We are pleased to see commitment to accountability for the crimes committed by the Assad regime and by the terrorists of ISIS," Mr Rapp, who is a board member on the Syrian Emergency Task Force, said in a statement.
"This means helping the Syrians gather and analyse the documents and excavate the mass graves to determine the fate of more than 100,000 missing persons, including Americans Austin Tice and Dr Majd Kamalmaz, and to lay the groundwork for trials of the major perpetrators."
