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US, UAE Discussed Lifting Assad Sanctions in Exchange for Break With Iran, Sources Say
Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad meets with Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, in Damascus, Syria, Dec. 1, 2024. Photo: SANA/Handout via REUTERS
The US and the United Arab Emirates have discussed with each other the possibility of lifting sanctions on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad if he peels himself away from Iran and cuts off weapons routes to Lebanon’s Hezbollah, five people familiar with the matter said.
The conversations intensified in recent months, the sources said, driven by the possible expiry on Dec. 20 of sweeping US sanctions on Syria and by Israel’s campaign against Tehran’s regional network, including Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza, and Iranian assets in Syria.
The discussions took place before anti-Assad rebels swept into Aleppo last week in their biggest offensive in Syria for years.
According to the sources, the new rebel advance is a signal of precisely the sort of weakness in Assad‘s alliance with Iran that the Emirati and US initiative aims to exploit. But if Assad embraces Iranian help for a counter-offensive, that could also complicate efforts to drive a wedge between them, the sources said.
Iran‘s foreign minister Abbas Araqchi visited Syria on Sunday in a show of support for Assad, and UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan spoke to Assad by phone about latest developments at the weekend.
For this story, Reuters spoke to two US sources, four Syrian and Lebanese interlocutors, and two foreign diplomats who said the US and UAE see a window to drive a wedge between Assad and Iran, which helped him recapture swathes of his country during the civil war that erupted in 2011.
Lebanese media have reported that Israel had suggested lifting US sanctions on Syria. But the UAE initiative with the US has not previously been reported. All of the sources spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the back-room diplomacy.
Syria’s government and the White House did not respond to questions from Reuters. The UAE referred Reuters to its statement on bin Zayed’s call with Assad.
The UAE has taken a leading role in rehabilitating Assad among the mainly Sunni Muslim Arab states that shunned him after he accepted help from Shi’ite, non-Arab Iran to put down the Sunni-led rebellion against him.
The Emirates hosted Assad in 2022, his first visit to an Arab country since the start of the war, before the Arab League reinstated Syria’s membership.
The UAE has long hoped to distance Assad from Iran and wants to build business ties with Syria, but US sanctions have hampered those efforts, the sources said.
A senior regional diplomat briefed by Tehran told Reuters Iran had been informed “about behind-the-scenes efforts by some Arab countries to isolate Iran … by distancing Syria from Tehran.”
The diplomat said those efforts were linked to offers of possible sanctions relief by Washington.
‘CARROT AND STICK’
Hezbollah, an internationally designated terrorist group, and its patron Iran have intervened in Syria since 2012 to protect Assad against Sunni rebels — but their bases and weapons shipments through Syria have been repeatedly hit by Israel, which has sought to weaken Iran across the region.
In recent months, Hezbollah withdrew fighters from Syria, including the north, to focus on battling Israel in southern Lebanon. The rebels who swept this week into Aleppo pointed to the Hezbollah withdrawal as one of the reasons why they faced little resistance from government forces.
A US source familiar with the matter said White House officials discussed an overture with Emirati officials, citing the UAE‘s interest in financing Syria’s reconstruction and Assad‘s “weakened position” after Israel’s offensive against Hezbollah.
The possibility of sanctions relief for Assad, while Israel was hitting Iran‘s allies, created an “opportunity” to apply a “carrot-and-stick approach” to fracture Syria’s alliance with Iran and Hezbollah, the US source said.
SANCTIONS RELIEF
The US placed sanctions on Syria after Assad cracked down against protests against him in 2011, and the sanctions were repeatedly tightened in the years of war that followed. The toughest, known as the Caesar Act, passed Congress in 2019.
The Caesar sanctions apply across Syrian business sectors, to anyone dealing with Syria regardless of nationality and to those dealing with Russian and Iranian entities in Syria.
Assad said they amounted to economic warfare, blaming them for the Syrian currency’s collapse and drop in living standards.
The sanctions will “sunset” — or expire — on Dec. 20 unless renewed by US lawmakers.
Part of the recent American-Emirati discussions centered on allowing Caesar sanctions to expire without renewal, said the US source and three of the Syrian interlocutors.
One Syrian interlocutor said the UAE had raised letting them expire with White House officials two months ago, after having unsuccessfully pushed for at least two years of sanctions relief for Assad after a deadly earthquake in Feb. 2023.
Mohammad Alaa Ghanem, a Syrian activist in Washington, DC with the Citizens for a Secure and Safe America, told Reuters his group had been working to extend the Caesar sanctions and assessed they had bipartisan support to do so.
“We’ve been in talks over this for the past couple of months, although of course no political outcome in a town like Washington can be guaranteed 100 percent,” he said.
Arab states have other potential avenues to reward Assad for distancing himself from Iran.
A foreign diplomat based in the Gulf told Reuters both the UAE and Saudi Arabia had in recent months offered “financial incentives” to Assad to split with Iran, saying they could not have been made without coordination with Washington.
A source with knowledge of the matter told Reuters that Syria, among other crises in the region, was a topic of discussion during Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s visit to the UAE on Sunday.
A Lebanese interlocutor said the UAE had also pledged funds to help Syria rebuild war-ravaged infrastructure as a way to “pull Assad further away from Iran.”
Iran has warned Assad not to stray far.
The senior regional diplomat briefed by Tehran said Iran‘s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei conveyed a message via his senior adviser Ali Larijani, who told Assad: “do not forget the past.”
“The message served as a reminder to Assad of who his true allies are,” the diplomat said.
‘PLAYING WITH FIRE’
Since Hamas terrorists attacked Israel on Oct. 7 last year precipitating war in Gaza, Iran has mobilized its network of allies to hit Israel.
But Assad has largely avoided joining in, even as Israel struck Hezbollah targets in his country and bombed an Iranian diplomatic compound in Damascus.
A US official said Assad had “sat out” the war to avoid further Israeli strikes on Syria, and remained under “tremendous pressure” not to allow Hezbollah to re-arm through his country.
Israel has signaled that it still has eyes on Syria. When announcing the truce with Lebanon last week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel had been thwarting attempts by Iran, Hezbollah and Syria’s army to bring weapons into Lebanon.
“Assad must understand — he is playing with fire,” Netanyahu said.
The post US, UAE Discussed Lifting Assad Sanctions in Exchange for Break With Iran, Sources Say first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Anti-Israel Detroit Event with Keynote Address from Tlaib Draws Condemnation for Extremist Rhetoric
US Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) speaking at a press conference at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, March 11, 2025. Photo: Michael Brochstein/ZUMA Press Wire via Reuters Connect
i24 News – A pro-Palestinian conference held in Detroit this week featuring popular influencers and Democratic lawmaker Rashida Tlaib was condemned for the extremist, antisemitic and anti-American rhetoric of its participants.
“We all know who they are, whether they are in Israel, Tel Aviv, in Washington, in Germany, in Europe. They need to be locked up. They need to be taken out. They need to be neutralized to save children, to save humanity,” said Nidal Jboor, an MD.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) hit out at “genocide enablers,” launching broadsides in all directions, including against the United States, which she said was built on on “slavery, genocide, rape and oppression,” and AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
Lawyer Huwaida Arraf said “we will continue to globalize the intifada.”
Of the Congress, where she is serving, Tlaib said that “Outside of the decaying halls of the empire in Washington, D.C., we are winning. They are scared.”
Rep. Buddy Carter, R-Ga. subsequently accused Tlaib of “vilifying her colleagues, endangering the lives of Jewish people, and celebrating terrorism.”
Yet another speaker declared that the word “peace” should not be part of the pro-Palestinian movement’s lexicon as “it is a white word,” in contrast to the “liberation.”
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Israeli Military Warns Gaza City Residents to Leave, Bombs High-Rise Tower
Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli air strike from earlier today that destroyed a residential building, in Gaza City, September 6, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
The Israeli military warned Palestinians in Gaza City to leave for the south on Saturday before bombing a high-rise tower as its forces advance deeper into the enclave’s largest urban area.
Israeli forces have been carrying out an offensive on the suburbs of the northern city for weeks after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the military to capture it.
Netanyahu says Gaza City is a Hamas stronghold and capturing it is necessary to defeat the Palestinian Islamist militants, whose October 2023 attack on Israel sparked the war.
The assault threatens to displace hundreds of thousands of Palestinians sheltering there from nearly two years of fighting. Before the war, around a million people, nearly half of Gaza’s population, lived in the city.
Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee wrote on X that residents should leave the city for a designated coastal area of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, assuring those fleeing that they would be able to receive food, medical care and shelter there.
The designated area was a “humanitarian zone,” Adraee said.
The military also issued so-called “evacuation warnings” to civilians in certain areas of the city, warning it was about to carry out attacks.
Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz shared a video on X of what appeared to be the multi-story building collapsing after the strike, sending a cloud of dust and debris into the air.
It was not immediately clear if there were any casualties.
The Israeli military said Hamas used the building to gather intelligence and that explosive devices had been planted nearby. Hamas denied using the building for military purposes, and Palestinians said it had been used to shelter the displaced.
“These towers are strictly monitored, entry is permitted exclusively for civilians,” Hamas said in a statement, adding the Israeli allegations constitute “a systematic forced displacement” plan.
HEAVY STRIKES
The Israeli military bombed another high-rise tower on Friday that it had also said was being used by Hamas.
On Thursday, the military said it had control over almost half of Gaza City. It says it controls about 75% of all of Gaza.
Many of those in Gaza City were displaced earlier in the war only to later return. Some residents have said that they refuse to be displaced again.
The military has been carrying out heavy strikes on the city for weeks, advancing through outer suburbs, and this week forces were within a few kilometers of the city center.
ALL-OR-NOTHING DEAL
Palestinian terrorists took 251 hostages into the enclave after a Hamas-led cross-border attack on southern Israeli communities on October 7, 2023 that killed about 1,200 people.
There are also growing calls within Israel, led by families of hostages and their supporters, to end the war in a diplomatic deal that would secure the release of the remaining 48 captives.
Israeli officials believe 20 of the hostages are alive.
Netanyahu is pushing for an all-or-nothing deal that would see all of the hostages released at once and Hamas surrendering.
A video released by Hamas on Friday showed two captives, one of whom said they were being held in Gaza City and that they feared being killed in Israel’s assault on the urban center.
Israeli military officials say they have killed many of Hamas’ key leaders and thousands of its fighters.
Hamas has offered to release some hostages for a temporary ceasefire, similar to terms that were discussed in July before negotiations mediated by the US and Arab states collapsed.
US President Donald Trump said on Friday that Washington was in “very deep” negotiations with the Palestinian militants.
Hamas, which has ruled Gaza for nearly two decades but today controls only parts of the enclave, has long said it would release all hostages if Israel agreed to end the war and to withdraw all its forces from Gaza.
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Antisemites Target Synagogues in Spain, France Amid Surge in Jew Hatred Across Europe
The exterior wall of a synagogue in Girona, Spain, vandalized with antisemitic graffiti. Photo: Screenshot
Pro-Palestinian activists have vandalized synagogues in Spain and France in recent days, sparking public outrage and calls for authorities to step up protections.
These are only the latest incidents in a troubling wave of anti-Jewish hate crimes targeting Jewish communities across Europe which continues unabated.
On Thursday, the Jewish community of Girona, a city in Spain’s northeastern Catalonia region, filed a police complaint and urged authorities to take action after the outer wall of the city’s synagogue was defaced with an antisemitic slogan.
Unknown perpetrators defaced the synagogue’s walls with antisemitic graffiti, scrawling messages such as “Israel is a genocidal state, silence = complicity.”
The city’s Jewish community strongly condemned the incident, urging authorities to conduct a swift investigation, impose exemplary sanctions, and ensure robust security measures.
“Disguised as political activism, [this attack] seeks to stigmatize citizens for their faith — something intolerable in a democratic society,” the statement reads. “Tolerance and respect are values we must defend together.”
The European Jewish Association (EJA) also condemned the incident as a hate crime, urging the Spanish government to ensure the safety and protection of its Jewish citizens.
“This is yet another antisemitic attack, part of a wave we’ve seen daily for nearly two years,” the EJA wrote in a post on X.
This is what members of the Jewish community in Girona found this morning when they arrived at their synagogue to pray.
Antisemitic vandals had defaced the synagogue’s outer wall with the words:
“ISRAEL ESTAT GENOCIDA, SILENCI = CÒMPLICE”
Translation: “Israel is a genocidal… pic.twitter.com/ERj4z1hKOP— EJA – EIPA (@EJAssociation) September 4, 2025
In a separate incident, three pro-Palestinian activists were arrested on Thursday after trying to force their way into a synagogue in Nice, southeastern France, during an informational meeting on aliyah, the process of Jews immigrating to Israel.
According to local reports, several individuals attempted to forcibly enter the place of worship, sparking violent clashes and insults that left a pregnant woman injured.
Shortly after the incident, law enforcement arrested two women in their forties and a man in his sixties, taking them into custody as part of an investigation into aggravated violence.
The charges involve attacks on a vulnerable person, actions carried out by a group, religious motivation, and public religious insults.
Local authorities strongly condemned the act and announced that police officers would remain stationed outside the synagogue for as long as necessary.
Since the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, antisemitic incidents have surged to alarming levels across Europe.
Jewish individuals have been facing a surge in hostility and targeted attacks, including vandalism of murals and businesses, as well as physical assaults.