Many will have welcomed the U.S. government’s decision last month to impose sweeping sanctions on 271 employees of the Syrian Scientific Studies and Research Center, which is believed to have made the nerve agent used in the Assad government’s chemical weapons attack on the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun earlier this month. The move reflects President Trump’s bid to take a tougher foreign policy line than his predecessor, much criticised for failing to act following a poison gas attack in Syria in 2013.
But, somewhat awkwardly for Trump, the Syria sanctions come as his administration is preparing to lift its embargo against the Sudanese government, which was accused of deploying chemical weapons against civilians in Darfur as recently as 2016. The decision, presented as a reward for Khartoum’s recent cooperation with U.S. forces in improving the local security environment, appears to set this goal at the expense of the human rights agenda and risks setting back progress on the latter. Lobbying against the loosening of measures is expected to increase over the next two months, putting pressure on the Trump administration to demonstrate that its adoption of a more conciliatory approach, despite these misgivings, has yielded concrete results in Khartoum.
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