US toughens demands on Syria’s new Islamist-led leadership

The White House issued policy guidance in recent weeks calling on the Syrian government to take steps that also involve securing the country’s chemical-weapons stockpile, several U.S. officials familiar with the policy said. The U.S. in exchange would consider a renewal of a narrow sanctions waiver issued by the Biden administration that was intended to speed the flow of aid to the country, they added.

The guidance reflects skepticism among administration officials of Syria’s government, which is led by former rebel commanders who ousted President Bashar al-Assad from power in December, ending the country’s 13-year-long civil war.

The guidance makes no mention of Russia, showing how the Trump administration is easing off a push under Biden to urge Damascus to get rid of the Kremlin’s military bases in Syria, at least for now, as U.S. officials negotiate with Moscow over an end to the Ukraine conflict.

“The United States currently does not recognize any entity as the government of Syria," said a State Department spokeswoman when asked about the policy notice. “Syria’s interim authorities should fully renounce and suppress terrorism," she also said.

The U.S. government labels Syria’s new president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, a terrorist, a years-old designation linked to his past in which he joined the insurgency against U.S. forces in Iraq and later founded a branch of al Qaeda in Syria before cutting ties with the group.

Much of Syria bears the scars of years of a brutal civil war, including in Damascus.

The Biden administration sent senior officials to meet with Sharaa in December and lifted a $10 million bounty that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had previously placed on him. But the Trump administration appears unwilling to go further without additional steps from him and the forces he leads. In March, fighters linked to his forces carried out a crackdown that killed members of the Alawite religious minority in response to an attack by former Assad regime loyalists.

U.S. defense officials said Friday the Pentagon planned to cut the roughly 2,000 U.S. forces based in Syria by half in coming weeks and consolidate its outposts there. The administration is planning a review to determine if more forces should be cut this summer. U.S. forces had been tasked with preventing Syria from becoming a foothold for extremist groups such as Islamic State.

It isn’t clear where Trump will land on other elements of U.S. policy toward Syria.

U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff, a powerful figure in the administration, said last month that Sharaa is “a different person than he once was. And people do change." Key Republican leaders are concerned about pulling back U.S. influence in Syria in a way that could allow an opening for Russia and China.

Senior U.S. military commanders have taken a more pragmatic approach to the situation in Syria, helping to broker a pact in March to fold a powerful American-backed Kurdish-led military force under the command of the government in Damascus.

The Syrian government didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the new U.S. policy demands, which have been communicated to them. The Pentagon decision to remove troops from Syria was earlier reported by the New York Times.

Sharaa has spent years working to moderate his image, fighting Islamic State and banning his own group from carrying out attacks abroad. Since taking power, Sharaa and his government have worked to gain Western and international acceptance, promising to govern Syria inclusively and pledging to avoid conflict with Israel. In March he appointed a new cabinet in which Islamists kept hold of key ministries but also included members of minority groups and civil-society leaders.

The stakes are high for Sharaa. Syria’s economy is struggling and swaths of its cities are in ruins after years of war in which Russian air power and Iranian militias backed Assad, who bombed his own people. The U.S. and other Western countries sanctioned Assad’s government in part to punish him for his atrocities.

Without a rollback of U.S. sanctions, rebuilding Syria will be difficult. The European Union and the U.K. eased some sanctions in recent months. Without American support and access to the U.S. financial system, however, Syria would struggle to pay government workers and launch a reconstruction effort that would allow refugees to return home and help prevent a resumption of violence in the country.

The entrance to a mosque in Damascus.

“There is so much assistance that is desperately needed to accomplish any of these things and to secure the country, let alone begin any kind of development," said Natasha Hall, a senior fellow with the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “Time is running out."

The recent administration policy guidance includes some requests similar to those made under the Biden administration, including working with the international Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to safeguard the country’s remaining chemical weapons, securing highly-enriched uranium and appointing a liaison to work on locating 14 Americans missing in Syria. The administration is also asking the new government to issue a public declaration against jihadist groups.

In a new request, the administration wants Syria to ban Palestinian militant groups from operating in the country—including raising funds there—and expel members of those groups from the country. Palestinian groups have been based for decades in Syria, which has had a large Palestinian refugee population since 1948. Any move to expel them could set up a confrontation between the government and those militias.

If Syria takes all of the steps outlined in the policy, the U.S. would publicly commit to Syria’s territorial integrity and consider renewing diplomatic relations and removing terrorist designations from members of the new government, officials said.

Under the new policy, the U.S. would also consider extending existing sanctions waivers issued by the Biden administration in January, intended to speed delivery of humanitarian aid to Syria. The Treasury Department in January granted waivers to aid groups and companies providing essential supplies, including electricity, petroleum, and natural gas.

The offer falls far short of a rollback of sanctions called for by some European officials, regional powers such as Turkey and security analysts who are concerned Syria could again descend into violence or drift back under the influence of Russia and other traditional U.S. opponents.

“It’s going to make the situation very complicated, and actually it will only push Syria and the new authorities into the hands of the Russians or even the Chinese," said Benjamin Fève, a senior research analyst with Karam Shaar Advisory, a consulting firm working on Syria’s economy.

The new policy excludes any mention of Russia, which launched a campaign of airstrikes in 2015 to help keep Assad in power. Moscow is negotiating to keep its military presence in Syria and has sent shipments of Syrian banknotes to the country in an effort to maintain influence there.

Two former Biden administration officials said that one goal of the administration’s diplomatic efforts with Damascus was to end the Russian military presence in Syria, including two naval and air bases near the Mediterranean that are essential to the Kremlin’s global efforts to project power.

Write to Jared Malsin at jared.malsin@wsj.com, Michael R. Gordon at michael.gordon@wsj.com and Nancy A. Youssef at nancy.youssef@wsj.com