DAMASCUS — As Syrians observe the first anniversary of toppling Bashar al-Assad’s regime, many are also noting a potential turning point abroad: the United States is moving to roll back broad economic sanctions that have complicated reconstruction and trade.
On Wednesday, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to repeal measures tied to the 2019 Caesar Act, which had been enacted amid allegations of killings and torture under Assad. Syria’s Foreign Ministry called the step a “pivotal moment” that could restore opportunities long denied to the Syrian people. The Senate is expected to consider and likely approve the repeal next week.
Business owners and officials say lifting the sanctions would remove barriers to billions of dollars in infrastructure and humanitarian projects and make ordinary commerce easier. “After the removal of these sanctions, we will be able to deal with Visa and Mastercard,” said Yasser Homsi, owner of Sham Services, a Syrian travel company. Homsi, who registered his business in the U.K., said he still must route payments through third countries because direct transfers to Syrian accounts remain banned.
The U.S. action comes as Syrians across the country celebrated the anniversary of Assad’s ouster by opposition fighters. Celebrations in Damascus, Homs and other cities featured fireworks, flags and late-night honking. At the main mosque in Damascus’s Midan neighborhood, worshippers left dawn prayers around the hour many marked as the moment Assad left Damascus under Russian protection on Dec. 8, 2024. Assad and his wife, Asma, remain in exile in Russia.
Crowds chanted “Allahu akbar” and women ululated. A metal fence around the mosque was draped with hundreds of photographs of people killed during the 2011–12 crackdown — mainly young men, but also children. Lutifa Muyadin, a resident, paused before the images and said, “Every day since the criminal regime is gone, we have joy and freedom,” adding thanks to the United States and to former President Trump for supporting Syrians.
Interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, once an al-Qaida fighter who has since renounced that ideology, addressed the nation and vowed to honor the trust placed in the interim government. “Let our motto be honesty, and our pledge be construction,” he said.
Syrian-American activist Mouaz Moustafa, founder of the Syria Emergency Task Force, moved among celebrants and shared a video of a restaurant cleaner dancing with a mop as colleagues clapped. He described the public joy as a reaction to years of repression, likening Assad’s fall to the fall of the Berlin Wall and calling it “rare that good defeats evil.”
Yet the aftermath of more than a decade of conflict remains stark. U.N. estimates put the death toll in the 13-year civil war at least half a million. Hundreds of thousands are still missing, and mass graves continue to be uncovered in the countryside; activists claim one site near Damascus may contain more than 20,000 bodies in multiple sunken graves.
Although many Syrians now experience freedoms they lacked under Assad, security concerns persist. New security forces include former militants who have been accused of carrying out revenge attacks against Alawite and Druze communities. A June suicide bombing at a church, claimed by a militant Sunni group, intensified fears among Christians.
Signs of economic life are appearing despite poverty and destruction. In Damascus, electric taxis now operate on city streets — a development that would have been nearly impossible under the old regime because new-car imports were restricted. 77 Auto, which imports electric vehicles from China, has a showroom in Damascus and is installing charging stations. Company CEO Afraa Sharif said that removing sanctions would let them activate vehicle software with Syrian registrations rather than creating registrations in China or the U.K.
Sharif pointed to small symbolic changes since Assad’s fall: she held up a U.S. dollar and recalled that under the former regime, even using the dollar sign in accounting could lead to imprisonment. “We did not dare even to use the dollar symbol in accounting,” she said.
At street level, modest optimism coexists with hardship. Bilal Falaha, who works in a second-hand clothing shop and earns about $5 a day, said he hopes life will improve despite personal losses: his family home was destroyed, and at 40 he has not had the means to marry and raise a family. “Things will get better but people have to work hand in hand with the state,” he said.
For many Syrians, the likely lifting of U.S. sanctions and a year without Assad are linked signs of a new chapter — one that could reopen the economy and create opportunities to rebuild, even as the country confronts wartime wounds, missing persons and ongoing security challenges.
