Biden: Turkey sanctions on “destabilising role in Syria” lifted in 2019

US President, , amended Wednesday (16.01.2020) executive decree by which the US could impose sanctions on the military offensive operations they had launched in 2019 in northeastern Syria. Joe Biden made a political “gift” to Erdogan a few days before leaving the White House, as he removed any reference Turkey had to provisions of an executive decree related to political and military developments in Syria. CORVERSE In particular, on 14 October 2019, Donald Trump put the executive decree into effect, thanks to which the US government imposed sanctions on Turkish officials even ministers for their involvement and role in military operations against the Kurds in north-eastern Syria. The then Trump government justified this decision, saying that Turkey played a destabilising role in the region, since Turkish attacks in Syria against Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) were in favour of the jihadists of ISIS, because they allowed their re-proliferation and reinforcement. The amendment of the provisions However, Joe Biden with his own on 15 January 2025, amended the provisions of Implementing Decree No 13894 of 2019, removing any reference to Turkish involvement in Syria. CORVERSE ‘I sign the new decree, taking into account the changing circumstances in Syria and in order to take additional measures in relation to the national state of emergency declared on 14 October 2019 I order the removal from the second paragraph of the phrase ‘and in particular the recent actions of the Turkish Government to carry out a military attack on north-eastern Syria’ . Thus, with amendments to the executive decree, sanctions no longer apply to Turkish officials, such as the ban on entry into the US or even the exclusion of assets. It is noted that these amendments are not linked to the sanctions of the CAATSA Act also imposed by the Trump Government on Russian air defence systems of type S-400, which are still in force.