5/15/2025 Syria (International Christian Concern) — On the sidelines of a trip to the Middle East this week, U.S. President Donald Trump met with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday. The encounter marked the first meeting between an American and a Syrian head of state since Bill Clinton met with Hafez Assad in 2000, and was accompanied by broad promises by President Trump to ease U.S. sanctions on Syria. 

The meeting comes as Syria experiences widespread violence, concentrated in Alawite-majority areas in the country’s western regions. The violence has presented a serious challenge for government attempts to unify the country, and suggests that longstanding community tensions will not fade quickly. 

In December, Sharaa and a coalition of militias deposed longtime Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. Assad’s 24 years in power were marked by the harsh repression of dissent and mass violence against civilians, drawing severe condemnation from the international community and a wide-ranging raft of sanctions designed to pressure the country into reform. 

With Assad deposed, many observers are hopeful that reform may finally be possible. Sharaa has made consistent overtures to the international community, engaging in highly publicized outreach to marginalized communities within Syria, vowing to establish a democratic system of government, and visiting with foreign leaders. 

Lifted Sanctions 

The lifting of sanctions will allow funds to flow into Syria more easily from the large Syrian diaspora scattered around the world and allow foreign firms to invest more readily in a country rich in opportunities for civil development and resource extraction. Ravaged by decades of war, Syria’s critical infrastructure is severely crippled. With sanctions now lifted, firms are likely to begin competing for lucrative development contracts. 

As critical infrastructure is repaired and order is restored, investments in oil and gas are also likely to increase. 

The announcement this week also opens the way for Syria to rejoin SWIFT, a financial messaging service that Syrian banks must access to conduct transactions with foreign institutions. 

In April, it was announced that Saudi Arabia plans to pay off about $15 million of Syria’s debts to the World Bank, making Syria eligible once again for World Bank grants and loans to assist in its development. 

While this week’s easing of sanctions represents a fundamental shift in U.S. policy toward Syria, some of the most crippling U.S. sanctions can only be reversed by an act of Congress where some are wary of completely easing sanctions on the as-yet unproven Sharaa administration. 

Continued Religious Freedom Concerns 

When the EU began lifting sanctions on Syria in February, it expressed that the continued lifting of sanctions was “part of the EU’s efforts to support an inclusive political transition in Syria, and its swift economic recovery, reconstruction, and stabilisation [sic].” In comments, EU leaders expressed continued concern about the health of Syria’s nascent democratic movement and the future of minority communities across the country. 

The EU’s shift on sanctions were timed to coincide with a meeting of leaders from across Syria in which they laid out a basic framework for the country’s new governing order. 

This week’s announcement did not contain similar demands for the continued promotion of human rights and democratic values. According to those familiar with the meeting, President Trump did not mention the importance of protecting minority communities or promoting democracy in his conversation with Sharaa. 

Ongoing Concerns 

Despite early efforts to reassure minority communities, several high-profile incidents in recent months have shaken observers and suggested that the preservation of minorities may not be a high priority in the Sharaa administration. 

Forces aligned with al-Sharaa’s new government recently killed more than a thousand members of the minority Alawite community, including hundreds of civilians and disarmed Alawite fighters, after members of the Alawite community launched a surprise attack on security forces. 

Despite a peace agreement between Sharaa’s government and a semi-autonomous Kurdish region in the north, Turkey — Sharaa’s strongest foreign backer — has continued to bomb Kurdish-held areas. Turkey has long opposed the semi-autonomous Kurdish region, where the acting government has made efforts to protect religious minorities from persecution despite decades of pressure from Turkey to the north, militias to the west, and the Syrian national government to the south. 

The new government announced an interim constitution in March that presented mixed prospects for human rights in the country. Analysis of the constitutional declaration suggests that earlier rhetoric about respecting the rights of women and religious minorities has remained an important pillar of the new government. In addition to provisions protecting religious freedom, other articles protect a variety of human rights, including the right of women to obtain an education and work. 

Still, the document concentrates power in the presidency and is explicit in its deference to Islamic law. 

“The religion of the President of the Republic is Islam,” Article III declares, and “Islamic jurisprudence is the principal source of legislation.” This language is slightly starker than Syria’s previous constitution, which cited Islamic law as simply one source among others. 

An Uncertain Future 

While Sharaa’s new government has promised to protect religious minorities and their place in society, such an inclusive effort must overcome decades of tension between communities and is far from a sure conclusion. 

Sharaa has made many statements extolling the virtues of religious tolerance and has engaged in concrete steps to ensure their safety. “Diversity is our strength, not a weakness,” Sharaa declared in an edict upon capturing Aleppo en route to Damascus.  

Still, HTS-aligned fighters reportedly went door to door in Damascus asking residents to identify their faith, suggesting that religion may continue to act as a point of tension. Sharaa is an avowed proponent of the Salafi-jihadist ideology and has much deeper roots as a persecutor of religion than a promoter of its free practice. 

Part of the inconsistent messaging may lie in the fact that Sharaa has always been focused on opposing the Assad regime, rather than clearly establishing his own positive vision for the country. 

Some analysts predict that Sharaa’s deep roots in Islamic jihad will lead to further attacks on ethnic and religious minority communities. Sharaa began his career with the Islamic State group in Iraq before creating his own al-Qaida-aligned militant group in Syria. 

Other analysts argue that Sharaa’s main concern will be to rebuild a country torn by decades of war, something that will require international cooperation and may incentivize Sharaa to respect international human rights norms. 

As the international community watches to see what type of government will replace the Assad regime, hundreds of thousands of religious minorities in Syria are watching too. For them, the new government’s respect for religious freedom is an intensely personal unknown. 

Should Sharaa continue to signal support for the rights of Christians and others, that would be a fundamental shift for the better. But that outcome is far from guaranteed, and a reversion to his old ways when he worked with the Islamic State and al-Qaida would be disastrous for these already-vulnerable communities that suffered so much under Assad. 

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