Syria — Lobbying and Influence in the United States

Syria is the Middle East country with almost no FARA record at all. Decades of U.S. sanctions made paid lobbying for the Assad government nearly impossible. That picture is shifting. In December 2024 the Assad regime fell, and in June 2025 the U.S. lifted parts of its sanctions program. This page explains what came before and what readers should watch now.

Why this page matters now

For nearly 50 years, Syria sat on the U.S. State Sponsors of Terrorism list. That shut down most normal business ties. The Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act of 2019 added another layer. It targeted anyone doing major business with the Assad government. U.S. law firms and lobby shops stayed away. The legal risk was too high.

The fall of Bashar al-Assad in December 2024 reset the board. A transitional government took power in Damascus. Ahmad al-Sharaa of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) leads it, per the State Department’s U.S. Relations With Syria page. On June 30, 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14312. It revoked several older Syria sanctions orders. It also let Treasury ease specific rules. That opens a path for legal Syrian lobbying in Washington for the first time in decades.

What the FARA record shows

Under Assad, the FARA record for Syria was close to empty. A search of efile.fara.gov for “Syria” or “Syrian Arab Republic” as a foreign principal turns up very little direct work. The reason is simple. Signing a contract with a sanctioned government is a crime, not a paperwork issue.

The one widely reported brush came in 2017. Reporting tied former Senator Trent Lott’s firm to an effort touching Syria-connected interests. The deal ran through Libyan intermediary Bashir Saleh. It drew press attention. It did not produce a long disclosure trail like Gulf clients do.

For broader context, the Paul Manafort case sits in the same era of unregistered foreign work. His case focused on Ukraine, not Syria. But it shaped how prosecutors read FARA across every Middle East file, including this one. The DOJ Special Counsel archive holds the materials.

How sanctions shaped the silence

Three layers of U.S. sanctions kept Syria out of the normal lobbying market:

The 1979 State Sponsors of Terrorism designation. It blocked most arms sales and foreign aid.
The Syria Accountability Act of 2003. It added trade limits.
The Caesar Act of 2019. It reached beyond U.S. persons to foreign firms doing business with the regime.

Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ran the day-to-day program. Its Syria sanctions page handled licensing. A U.S. firm that wanted to file under FARA for the Assad government needed a specific OFAC license first. Very few ever did.

2025: a new door opens

Executive Order 14312 was signed on June 30, 2025. It revoked Executive Orders 13338, 13399, 13460, 13572, 13573, and 13582. Those orders formed the backbone of the Syria sanctions program. OFAC followed with updated guidance on what became permitted and what stayed blocked.

Caesar Act sanctions, passed by Congress, were not fully repealed by the order. Parts still apply. But the change is real. U.S. law firms can now, in specific cases, take on work for the Syrian transitional government. The near-automatic legal bar is gone.

Readers should watch efile.fara.gov in 2025 and 2026. Look for any new filings listing the Syrian transitional government, Syrian ministries, or related non-profits as the foreign principal.

A note on the new government. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham began as an al-Qaeda affiliate before breaking away and rebranding. That history matters to any U.S. firm weighing a contract, even with sanctions partly lifted. Official U.S. terrorism designations are the best guide to what is and is not allowed. Treasury updates them often.

Scale, in plain numbers

For the Assad years, Syria’s FARA spending was effectively zero. There is no comparison to Qatar, the UAE, or Saudi Arabia. The country was cut out of the market by law.

Any 2025 or 2026 numbers will be new. The best place to check is efile.fara.gov, searching “Syria” as a foreign principal. The Congressional Research Service report RL33487 is the standing reference for U.S.-Syria policy and sanctions.

The right takeaway

Syria has been the quiet entry in this series. Sanctions, not secrecy, explain the empty FARA file. That silence may not last. The 2024 regime change and the 2025 sanctions relief under EO 14312 create the first real opening for paid Syrian lobbying in Washington in a generation.

Track the primary sources. If a contract appears, it will appear on efile.fara.gov first.