Syria’s foreign minister arrived Thursday in Washington, where he is set to meet with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other US officials in the first official visit by a senior Syrian official to the US capital in over two decades.
Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani’s visit “reflects Syria’s openness to direct dialogue with the United States,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement to Syrian state news agency SANA.
The ministry said that during the visit, “issues of mutual interest in the political, security and economic spheres will be discussed.”
Shibani will reportedly meet with Rubio on Friday.
Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told Axios on Wednesday that he and other senators will meet with the foreign minister on Thursday to discuss the lifting of US sanctions on Syria, including the Caesar Act.
Passed in 2019, the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act imposed sweeping sanctions on former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government and individuals and entities that do business with it in response to atrocities committed during the country’s civil war. Section 7431(a) of the act allows for the suspension, in whole or in part, of Caesar sanctions for renewable 180-day periods if certain conditions are met. In May, the State Department used this authority to issue a 180-day waiver. But to repeal the act entirely would require new legislation from Congress.
The US has rolled back other sanctions on Syria and has pushed the UN to lift international sanctions, as Al-Monitor’s Elizabeth Hagedorn has reported.
According to Axios, Graham said that he would support the cancellation of Caesar sanctions if Syria makes progress on a security agreement with Israel and joins the US-led alliance formed in 2014 to fight against the Islamic State.
Just a day before arriving in Washington, Shibani was in London for talks with Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, mediated by US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack, according to an Axios report.
Against that backdrop, Agence France-Presse reported Tuesday that Syria has begun withdrawing its heavy weaponry from the country’s south up to six miles outside the capital. Israeli troops currently hold nine posts in southern Syria, seized after the fall of Assad in December 2024.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly called for a demilitarized zone in the south, saying late last month that there are “ongoing discussions about the possibility of disarming southern Syria.” Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa confirmed last Friday that talks are underway to return Israeli forces to their positions prior to December 2024.
Shibani was in Washington in April for the Spring Meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. While in the US, Shibani also stopped in New York for talks at the United Nations.