On August 26, 2025, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) published a final rule in the Federal Register announcing it has removed the Syrian Sanctions Regulations and terminated the national emergency on which the regulations were based from the Code of Federal Regulations. Those regulations, codified at 31 C.F.R. Part 542, had been in effect since April 5, 2005 (though reissued on May 2, 2014).
The removal of the Syrian Sanctions Regulations reflects one of the objectives in Executive Order (EO) 14312 issued by President Donald Trump on June 30, 2025. Among other national security and foreign policy goals, EO 14312 provided for the removal of sanctions on Syria but, critically, without providing relief to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) or other terrorist organizations, human rights abusers, those linked to chemical weapons or proliferation-related activities, or other persons that threaten the peace, security, or stability of the United States, Syria, and its neighbors. (For more background on EO 14312, see Update of July 3, 2025.)
Because certain Syrian persons will still be subject to sanctions, however, the final rule concludes by noting that OFAC will publish a forthcoming rule to amend the Syria-Related Sanctions Regulations (codified at 31 C.F.R. Part 569) and rename it the Promoting Accountability for Assad and Regional Stabilization Sanctions Regulations.