The US House of Representatives has approved the final version of the 2026 National Defence Authorization Act (NDAA), including a provision regarding the complete and unconditional repeal of the Caesar Act, which had imposed extensive sanctions on Syria.
The legislation now returns to the Senate for a further vote before being sent to President Donald Trump for signature. Once signed, the repeal will take effect immediately.
A vote had initially been planned without amendments, which would have sent the bill directly to the president. However, disagreements among Republican members of the House led to revisions unrelated to the Caesar Act, despite efforts by some pro-Israel lawmakers to attach binding conditions to the repeal. These attempts did not succeed, and the repeal clause remained unconditional.
The law is scheduled to take effect on 1 January 2026, formally bringing an end to the Caesar Act after years of sanctions on Damascus. The move follows earlier steps by the Trump administration to remove Syria from the list of state sponsors of terrorism and lift other sanctions previously imposed through executive authority.
Farouk Bilal, president of the Syrian American Council, told The New Arab's Arabic edition Al-Araby Al-Jadeed: "This is an effort we have been working on for a long time, and was expected to happen in mid-2025. Today this provision was added as an annex repealing the law without any conditions. Now it is the role of the Syrian government to create the appropriate climate to attract investments through its economic and political decisions."
The clause repealing the Caesar Act contains no mandatory requirements, meaning the cancellation will automatically take effect on 1 January.
Bilal noted that only "requests" were attached, without legal force. These include asking Syria to cooperate with the international coalition to prevent an ISIS resurgence; ensure Iran does not return to the Syrian arena; avoid posing threats to neighbouring states, "especially Israel"; help counter terrorist-financing networks; and continue coordination with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
He added that the bill includes a provision enabling Congress to authorise new sanctions if the Syrian government does not meet these assurances.
"Over the past six months many investment agreements were signed with international and regional companies seeking to invest in Syria, but most were not implemented because of these sanctions," Bilal said.
"Now, with the sanctions lifted, these contracts can be implemented immediately. In the long term, this will contribute to reconstruction, the return of refugees, rebuilding the health and education sectors, and economic improvement, which in turn will improve security and living conditions in Syria." he added.
During the Syrian revolution, the United States imposed extensive sanctions on the Assad regime, which was overthrown in December 2024, through executive orders that could be lifted by the president, as well as through laws passed by Congress. The Caesar Act was the most notable, enacted in 2020 after six years of preparation.
It mandated sanctions on Assad, his inner circle and key sectors of the Syrian economy - imposing punishments on any entity supporting or dealing with the deposed regime.
The new Syrian government of President Ahmed Al-Sharaa has lobbied hard to get the sanctions removed.
"Caesar" was the codename of a military photographer in the regime’s military police forensic unit in Damascus.
Assigned to document corpses of detainees who died under torture, he smuggled approximately 55,000 photographs of 11,000 victims before defecting in 2013. The archive became the most significant body of evidence implicating the regime in systematic torture and killing.