Washington, SANA- The US Treasury on Monday said it is removing Syria from its sanctions list, officially allowing American companies to do business with Damascus.

Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (Ofac) said the change would take effect on Tuesday, August 26. It means that sanctions dating to 2004 and reissued over the course of former regime war will be lifted.

The move follows the collapse of the deposed Assad regime in December.

President Donald Trump in June ordered the lifting of sanctions against Syria.

Ofac “is removing from the Code of Federal Regulations the Syrian Sanctions Regulations as a result of the termination of the national emergency on which the regulations were based and further changes to the policy of the United States towards Syria”, the Treasury said.

In order for all US sanctions to be lifted, Congress still needs to repeal the 2019 Caesar Act. Politicians are currently on their summer break but are expected to work on the issue when they return to Washington next month.

Mazen Eyon