What does the end of US sanctions mean for Syrians?
The Take
Al Jazeera
4.7 • 748 Ratings
🗓️ 19 May 2025
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What would the end of US sanctions mean for Syria? The handshake between US President Donald Trump and interim Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa was a dramatic shift, signaling the end of 46 years of US sanctions against Syria. Now, the door is opening to more investment and international aid, and Syrians poured into the streets in celebration. How did the deal come together, and what might it mean for Syria's future?
In this episode:
- Imran Khan (@ajimran), Al Jazeera senior correspondent
Episode credits:
This episode was produced by Noor Wazwaz, Sonia Bhagat, and Chloe K. Li with Phillip Lanos, Spencer Cline, Kisaa Zehra, Remas Alhawari, Mariana Navarrete, and our guest host, Natasha Del Toro. It was edited by Kylene Kiang.
Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our video editor is Hisham Abu Salah. Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer. Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera’s head of audio.
The Take production team is Marcos Bartolomé, Sonia Bhagat, Sarí el-Khalili, Tamara Khandaker, Phillip Lanos, Chloe K. Li, Ashish Malhotra, Haleema Shah, Khaled Soltan, Amy Walters, and Noor Wazwaz. Our editorial interns are Remas Alhawari, Kingwell Ma, Mariana Navarrete, and Kisaa Zehra. Our guest host is Natasha Del Toro. Our engagement producers are Adam Abou-Gad and Vienna Maglio. Aya Elmileik is lead of audience engagement.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Al Jazeera Podcasts. |
| 0:07.0 | Today, celebrations, celebrations, and a seismic shift in U.S. foreign policy. |
| 0:20.0 | With the support of leaders in this room and the great leaders you are, |
| 0:24.4 | we are currently exploring normalizing relations with Syria's new government. |
| 0:29.6 | For the first time in 25 years, a U.S. president sat with a Syrian leader. |
| 0:35.2 | What changed? And what will this relationship mean for Syrians? |
| 0:40.8 | I'm Natasha Deltwaro, and this is the take. |
| 0:51.1 | I never, ever, ever, |
| 0:53.6 | thought that I would see a Syrian president sit down with an American president and shake out. |
| 1:02.9 | My name is Imran Khan. I'm a senior correspondent for Al Jazeera English, and I'm currently in Damascus. |
| 1:09.1 | Well, Imran, welcome back to the take. |
| 1:11.7 | You're in Damascus, and there have been some really, really historic changes there in the past few days |
| 1:17.3 | that you have gotten a front road seat to. |
| 1:19.9 | U.S. President Donald Trump and Syria's President Ahmad al-Shara met for the first time in Riyadh. |
| 1:26.0 | And Trump announced that he is going to be lifting |
| 1:29.5 | sanctions on Syria. |
| 1:31.4 | I will be ordering the cessation of sanctions against Syria in order to give them a chance |
| 1:37.4 | at greatness. |
| 1:39.0 | This is a big moment politically, but also practically for ordinary Syrians who've been living through war, |
| 1:46.1 | displacement, and economic collapse for nearly 14 years since the beginning of the Syrian Civil |
| 1:52.4 | War. You've been there for two weeks now. What has it been like? People are almost in a sense |
| 2:00.0 | of shock that Trump has just gone, yes, we're lifting all of the |
... |
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