Saadallah al-Jabri Street in Damascus, on May 5, 2025. (Credit: Omar Haj Kadour/AFP)
Syrian Finance Minister Mohammed Barnieh announced Thursday that Qatar will assist his country in paying public sector salaries, and Washington has granted a partial exemption from sanctions on Syria to permit this funding.
"We thank the Qatari government for the generous subsidy granted to pay part of the current salaries," said Barnieh, quoted Wednesday evening by the state-run Syrian agency Sana.
The agreement covers "$29 million per month for three months" and will cover "salaries in the health, education, and social affairs sectors, as well as non-military pensions," he stated. The operation "has been exempted from U.S. sanctions," he added, thanking the U.S. Treasury "for the speed with which it facilitated this aid."
Barnieh said that "the subsidy would be managed by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)" and covered "around one-fifth of current salaries and pensions."
Earlier, three sources close to the matter had confirmed to Reuters that the United States had given the green light to Qatar's initiative, which offers a financial lifeline to Syria's new government seeking stability after more than a decade of civil war.
Doha, one of the most influential supporters of Syria's President Ahmad al-Sharaa on the international stage, had so far been reluctant to act without Washington's explicit agreement, which maintained strict sanctions imposed under the regime of Bashar al-Assad. After 14 years of conflict, a drained economy, and decades of clan governance, the Syrian state is on the brink. Civil servants, meanwhile, are struggling to survive on meager salaries. Sharaa's government, despite some signs of openness welcomed in the West, still struggles to convince that it has definitively turned the page on its Islamist past.
Washington's position softens
According to two people familiar with the dossier contacted by Reuters, the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) will issue a letter in the coming days confirming that this initiative is exempt from the current sanctions regime. This American green light indicates a certain softening of Washington's stance, while several European capitals have meanwhile accelerated the easing of their own sanctions regimes.
The Qatari funds will be allocated under strict conditions: only civilian public sector employees can benefit from them, indicates a Syrian financial source, adding that the Interior and Defense ministries will not participate in the scheme. A condition that nonetheless reflects the international community's persistent concerns about the radical past of the new Damascus regime, which is working to restructure its security forces, according to this same source and several diplomats.
The first payments, expected as early as next month, will gradually trigger a long-awaited salary increase: a 400 percent rise in pay expected to affect more than a million civil servants over several months, the Syrian source added.
Uncertainty around U.S. sanctions
All the cited sources requested anonymity, not being authorized to speak publicly on the subject. Neither the Qatari government nor the U.S. Treasury has issued a statement on this matter.
The Damascus government has committed to supplementing the salary package by taking charge of salary increases for employees excluded from the scheme funded by Doha, indicates the Syrian source. Qatar had considered this financial support shortly after Bashar al-Assad's fall on Dec. 8, when a coalition of rebel groups led by the Islamist group Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) ousted him from power. The project had also been hampered by the persistent uncertainty surrounding U.S. sanctions and the indecision of Donald Trump's administration on the Syrian dossier.
Economic priority
The former U.S. administration of Joe Biden issued a general exemption from sanctions on Jan. 6 authorizing transactions with Syrian institutions for six months. But many states and entities interested in re-engaging with Damascus had demanded additional guarantees. This measure, known as the general license, aimed to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid and to allow a limited resumption of transactions in the energy sector, while maintaining the general sanctions framework.
For months, Syria's new authorities have been demanding the lifting of international sanctions imposed during the reign of former President Bashar al-Assad. The revival of a drained economy, now engaged in an attempt to open to the free market after decades of protectionism, is among the stated priorities of Syria's new regime. The United Nations estimates that nine out of 10 Syrians today live below the poverty line.
In January, the interim Syrian finance minister announced a 400 percent increase in civil servants' salaries, effective from February, with an estimated cost of 1.65 trillion Syrian pounds, or about $130 million per month. He then mentioned regional aid as one of the main sources of funding for this measure.
Western policy toward Syria remains hampered by the jihadist origins of the group Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), still classified as a terrorist organization by several major powers. Emerging from the al-Nusra Front – the former al-Qaeda branch in Syria – HTS officially broke with the jihadist network in 2016, under the leadership of Sharaa. The group was formally dissolved last January.
This article was originally published in French in L'Orient-Le Jour.
