00:00Major breakthrough, I would say, for Syria in the last 24 hours, the fact that the president himself, the Syrian president, was invited to Riyadh.
00:08He had a one-on-one meeting with President Trump, the U.S. announcing that they're looking to lift sanctions.
00:14How significant a development is that, sir?
00:18Thank you, Jumana. I think this is a pretty major breakthrough coming from the president himself.
00:24But we'll have to see what he really means by cessation. That's the word he used.
00:29And so we don't yet know the scope.
00:31And one layer of concerns has to do with the gamut of U.S. sanctions on Syria.
00:36And a whole other level of concern has to do with counterterrorist sanctions.
00:41So it's pretty unclear what Trump means by cessation.
00:45And it could be either read as a suspension.
00:48So we should expect broad action either that is time-bound or tied to some publicly outlined markers.
00:56And we'll have to see what action, if any, will be taken with respect to the FTO designation, the SDGT designation, and also other designation and sanctions that date back from 1979, such as the State Sponsorship of Terrorism one.
01:14So it's still a slow unwind of some of these sanctions is your expectation.
01:23What do you think should be the government's first priorities, initial priorities, once it becomes apparent what type of sanctions relief the U.S. is going to be providing?
01:32I think the sanctions that are hurting Syria the most are the ones that concern the banking sector.
01:44So the priority for the U.S. administration should be to lift those ones and try to work on how to really replug Syria's banking sector to the global financial system, because at the moment it still stands isolated.
02:02So this would be the first set of sanctions the U.S. government should work in terms of repealing.
02:10And then the counterterrorism sanctions are also very important in terms of blocking any type of contact with the new administration, because according to the foreign terrorist organization designation, there's a clause within it that is called the material support clause that basically impedes any type of engagement with the new administration given its designation.
02:38So not only economic funds cannot be provided to it, but also diplomatic engagement and any type of contact with them is theoretically, according to the law, prohibited.
02:51So this is something really crucial that the administration should tackle as early as possible.
02:56When President Trump made that announcement, he credited both the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia and the Turkish President, President Erdogan, for getting him across the line.
03:11How big of a role do you think those particular countries and broader GCC nations are going to play in Syria's rehabilitation?
03:20I think regarding Saudi Arabia, we've seen already its disposition towards repaying Syria's World Bank, current standing World Bank debt, so to allow for engagement with the institution.
03:38So Saudi Arabia, of course, as a Sunni country, has, let's say, not only material interests, but also, let's say, sectarian proximity to the new administration in Syria and wants to establish or reestablish a presence in the country, as it is now doing in Lebanon with current engagements going on in the country.
04:05So that's for Saudi Arabia.
04:10And for Turkey, in a similar way.
04:14Let me just round up with the final question, because I think many people were surprised to see this evolution of Ahmad al-Shar'a, who not so long ago was a jihadi fighter, now meeting with arguably the most powerful person in the world.
04:31The eyes of the world are going to be watching to see what this administration does, what the government's priorities are.
04:38Is it your sense that the government will continue to do the right things in terms of ensuring that minorities' rights are respected and that there will be transparent and clean institution building from now on?
04:52I think according to what we've gathered from the past months, this is what the government is trying to do at the moment.
05:02They have established a commission, for instance, after the sectarian killings in Latakia against Alawites.
05:11And also recently, with the Druze killings, they've been trying to establish similar mechanisms to pursue the criminals that initiated them.
05:23So I think this is a crucial issue that the international community is following up closely and that they know how important it is.
05:31So they're expected to, you know, keep a strong stance on it.
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