Special Representative for Syria Engagement James F. Jeffrey Remarks to the Traveling Press
![Syria [Shutterstock]](https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Syria-2109x1406.jpg)
International Travel Information
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October 14, 2019
October 11, 2019
October 11, 2019
U.S. Relationship
U.S.-Syria Relations
Syria has been on the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism since the list's inception in 1979. Because of its continuing policies in supporting terrorism, its former occupation of Lebanon, pursuing weapons of mass destruction and missile programs, and undermining U.S. and international efforts to stabilize Iraq. Syria is subject to legislatively mandated penalties, including export sanctions under the Syrian Accountability Act and ineligibility to receive most forms of U.S. aid or to purchase U.S. military equipment. Following events in Syria beginning in March 2011, subsequent Executive orders have been issued in response to the ongoing violence and human rights abuses taking place in Syria.
U.S. Assistance to Syria
The U.S. is the largest single country humanitarian donor for the Syria response, providing nearly $8.1 billion in humanitarian assistance for those displaced inside Syria and the region since the start of the crisis. The U.S. government supports emergency food assistance, shelter, safe drinking water, urgent medical care, humanitarian protection activities, and other urgent relief to the 13.1 million people suffering inside Syria, as well as the more than 5.6 million refugees from Syria in the region.
Bilateral Economic Relations
The U.S. maintains comprehensive sanctions on Syria that broadly restrict the ability of U.S. persons to engage in transactional dealings involving Syria. Syria has been subject to U.S. economic sanctions since 2004 under the Syria Accountability Act, which prohibits or restricts the export and re-export of most U.S. products to Syria. The U.S. Government is continuously identifying and designating individuals and entities subject to U.S. sanctions related to Syria, including but not limited to the Syrian regime’s use of chemical weapons and other atrocities against its own people.
![Syria Flag: Three equal horizontal bands of red (top), white, and black; two small, green, five-pointed stars in a horizontal line centered in the white band; the band colors derive from the Arab Liberation flag and represent oppression (black), overcome through bloody struggle (red), to be replaced by a bright future (white); identical to the former flag of the United Arab Republic (1958-1961) where the two stars represented the constituent states of Syria and Egypt; the current design dates to 1980 note: similar to the flag of Yemen, which has a plain white band, Iraq, which has an Arabic inscription centered in the white band, and that of Egypt, which has a gold Eagle of Saladin centered in the white band [CIA World Fact Book]](https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Syria-Flag.gif){kind=small}