On June 30, 2025, as part of the process of normalizing relations with Damascus following the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the Trump administration overhauled the sanctions imposed on Syria to facilitate the rebuilding of that war-ravaged country. In the course of revising these sanctions, however, 266 employees of the Scientific Studies and Research Center, the heart of the Assad regime’s chemical weapons complex, were removed without explanation from the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Specially Designated Nationals List. This list is a compilation of human rights abusers, proliferators, terrorists, drug lords, and others deemed a threat to U.S.The post Why Did the United States Lift Sanctions on Assad’s Chemical Weapons Scientists? appeared first on War on the Rocks.