Sources: U.S. to Blame for Pause in Syria’s Reengagement With Arab World

DAMASCUS (Sputnik) – The United States has taken a number of economic measures to repel Arab nations’ interest in reengagement with Damascus, which eventually caused the Arab League’s special committee to halt contacts with Syria despite the country’s readmission to the organization, a source familiar with the matter told Sputnik.

Earlier this week, media reported that the Arab League committee, which was formed in May to seek a comprehensive solution to the crisis in Syria, had frozen its contacts with representatives of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
“Further steps towards supporting Syria, whose economy is in tatters, have been put on hold due to direct U.S. pressure,” the source said.
The source pointed out that it was Saudi Arabia that launched regional efforts to reengage Syria after 12 years of isolation.
Kuwait, Qatar, and Morocco were reluctant at first, but later also embraced Syria into the Arab League in the hope of stabilizing the situation in the country through its economic reconstruction. Therefore, in May, the League of Arab States reinstated Syria’s membership in the organization, ending a long hiatus.
However, financial support for Syria and plans for its post-war rebuilding turned out to be hampered by the U.S.’s Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act of 2019 and its expected supplement, 2023 Assad Regime Anti-Normalization Act, which might extend the U.S. administration’s authority to sanction those cooperating with Syria, the source said, adding that anticipated investments from Arab countries never materialized.
“The reasons for discouragement were technical, diplomatic and political difficulties resulting from the U.S. Caesar Act and other U.S. sanctions against Syria,” the source explained.
Syria has been under sanctions pressure from the United States, the European Union and a number of individual countries since the start of clashes with Western-backed terrorists in 2011. The U.S. restrictions are believed to be the toughest, as they include an embargo and affect third parties. US secondary sanctions were restricted until 2020 when the Caesar Act, signed by then-U.S. President Donald Trump in 2019, went into effect.