Former US Special Envoy James Jeffrey says the US still lacks a clear policy on Syria and hasn’t made decisions on sanctions.#Syria #US
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00:00Ambassador Jeffrey, let me start with you. Is the new administration up to these challenges
00:05of rebuilding, repairing and uniting the country?
00:10Chris, thanks for having me on. It's good to be on with Salomon again.
00:15Let me say that the new administration has been much more active generally in the Middle East
00:22than we had thought with all of the talk before the election on pivot to Asia. That's good.
00:28The one area where it does not have a clear policy, in particular compared to the Biden
00:35administration in the last months, is in Syria. And that is not good. The administration did play
00:42a role in encouraging the Syrian Democratic Forces to negotiate a deal with Damascus
00:52several weeks ago for eventual inclusion. That's a positive. But the administration still has not
01:01taken a final decision on the sanctions, known as the Caesar sanctions, which are imposing
01:07really tripling costs on Syria. And it will be impossible for the international community,
01:13because it's a larger job than America, to fix Syria without the Caesar sanctions being lifted.