News- Middle East: US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to ease Washington’s unilateral sanctions against Syria amid circulating reports regarding plans by the Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS)-led regime to hand over the occupied Golan Heights to Israel as part of a looming normalization deal with the illegal entity.

The US Department of the Treasury claimed in a statement that Trump’s decree on Monday offers sanctions relief to “entities critical to Syria’s development, the operation of its government, and the rebuilding of the country’s social fabric.”

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt also claimed that the order is designed to “promote and support the country's path to stability and peace.”

Trump’s decree does not rescind sanctions imposed on ousted former president Bashar Assad, his top aides, family members and officials who had been accused by the US of human rights violations before the HTS militants seized control of the Arab country.

The order also leaves intact a major set of sanctions passed by Congress targeting anyone doing business with or offering support to Syria’s military, intelligence, or other suspect institutions.

In a statement posted on X, the HTS regime’s foreign minister Asaad Hassan al-Shaibani welcomed Trump’s sanctions waiver, saying it “will open the door of long-awaited reconstruction and development.”

As part of Trump’s order, the US president also ordered Secretary of State Marco Rubio to review the designation of the HTS leader and Syria's self-appointed president Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, known as Ahmed al-Sharaa, as a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist.”

The sanctions relief comes as the HTS-led regime in Syria and Israel are reportedly nearing a peace and normalization agreement, which is expected to be signed before the end of 2025.

The Israeli media outlet i24 News, citing a Syrian source with direct knowledge of the matter, reported on Saturday that the deal envisions a gradual Israeli withdrawal from all Syrian territories it seized after invading the buffer zone on December 8, 2024, including the peak of Mount Hermon.

According to the source, the “historic” deal will fully normalize diplomatic relations between the two sides, adding that the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights will be designated as "a garden for peace" under the agreement framework.

The Lebanese news channel LBCI reported that Syria is not demanding that Israel return parts of the Golan Heights that it captured in 1967 in current talks on the peace agreement.

According to the report, citing unnamed sources, Syria is demanding that Israel recognize the new regime in Damascus and withdraw from the areas it took control of in southern Syria since January.

The Golan Heights, a strategic plateau at the southwest corner of Syria, has been occupied by Israel since the 1967 Six-Day War in a move not recognized by the international community, except for the US.

Back in May, Israeli media reported that a delegation from the HTS-led administration in Syria made a secret visit to the occupied territories to hold direct talks with Israeli officials after Jolani signaled readiness to normalize ties with Israel.

The HTS militant group, a former branch of al-Qaeda, along with other militants, seized control of Damascus on December 8, 2024, forcing Assad, a strong supporter of the Palestinian cause, to leave the country.

Since Assad was toppled, Israel has also conducted hundreds of airstrikes against Syria and occupied large swathes of territory in the country.

Source: Press TV