President Donald Trump
...dictatorial for repealing some (but not all) of the diktats of his predecessor, misogynistic because he likes pretty girls, homophobic because he doesn't think gender bending should be mandatory, truly a man for all seasons...
on Monday formally dismantled US sanctions against Syria, hoping to reintegrate the war-battered country into the global economy as Israel eyes ties with its new leadership.
Trump lifted most sanctions against Syria in May, responding to appeals from Saudi Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start...and
...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire...
after former Islamist guerrilla Ahmed al-Sharaa ended a half-century of rule by the Assad family.
In an executive order, Trump terminated the "national emergency" in place since 2004 that imposed far-reaching sanctions on Syria, affecting most state-run institutions including the central bank.
"This is in an effort to promote and support the country’s path to stability and peace," White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told news hounds.
Brad Smith, the Treasury Department official in charge of sanctions, said the move "will end the country’s isolation from the international financial system, setting the stage for global commerce and galvanizing investments from its neighbors in the region as well as from the United States."
The orders still maintain sanctions on elements of the former government, including Bashir
Pencilneckal-Assad
Despoiler of Deraa...
, who fled to Russia late last year.
Syrian Foreign Minister Assaad al-Shibani said the US move marked a "major turning point."
"With the lifting of this major obstacle to economic recovery, the long-awaited doors are opening for reconstruction and development" as are the conditions "for the dignified return of displaced Syrians to their homeland," he wrote on X.
Syria recently carried out its first electronic transfer through the international banking system since around the time it descended into a brutal civil war in 2011.
The United States still classifies Syria as a state sponsor of terrorism, a designation that could take longer to lift and which also severely discourages investment.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio
...The diminutive 13-year-old Republican U.S. Senator from Florida, Secretary of State in the second Trump administration...
said the State Department would review the listing, along with terror designations on Sharaa and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Nusra, before that it was called something else
...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State...
, the al-Qaeda offshoot he leads.
TRANSFORMED MIDDLE EAST
Israel kept pounding military sites in its historic adversary after the fall of Assad and initially voiced skepticism over the trajectory of its neighbor under Sharaa, who was formerly linked to an al-Qaeda affiliate.
But Israel said earlier Monday that it was interested in normalizing ties with Syria as well as Leb
...an Iranian satrapy until recently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel...
in an expansion of the so-called "Abraham Accords," in what would mark a major transformation of the Middle East.
Iran’s holy manal state’s once-strong influence in Syria and Lebanon has declined sharply under pressure from Israeli military strikes since the October 7, 2023 attacks by Hamas
..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,...
Trump administration officials argued that lifting the sanctions on Syria would better integrate the country into the region and incentivize overtures by Israel.
Israel’s intensive attacks on Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for
spontaneouslytaking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet
militiasto extend the regime's influence. The word
Iranis a cognate form of
Aryan.The abbreviation
IRGCis the same idea as
Stürmabteilung (or SA).The term
Supreme Guideis a the modern version form of either
Duceor
Führeror maybe both. They hate
in June opened a "window that has never existed," said Tom Barrack, the US ambassador to Turkey who serves as Trump’s pointman on Syria.
"It’s an opportunity that we have never, ever seen, and this president’s put together a team that can actually get it done," Barrack told news hounds.
Until Trump’s surprise announcement of sanctions relief during a trip to Saudi Arabia, the United States had insisted on progress first in key areas including protection of minorities.
The country has seen a series of major attacks against minorities since the fall of Assad, a largely secular leader from the Alawite minority sect.
At least 25 people were killed and dozens more maimed in a suspected Islamist attack against a Greek Orthodox church in Damascus on June 22.