Syrian sanctions relief
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Syrian sanctions relief is the policy John Kiriakou singles out as the substantive part of the 2025 opening to Damascus, and he defends it on counter-terrorism grounds rather than diplomatic ones. The argument runs directly out of what he says he learned interrogating al-Qaeda's foot soldiers: that they had joined for money and had no quarrel with the United States, so "if the West were serious about addressing the root causes of terrorism, we would be involved in widescale economic development and education."

He then reads the policy as exactly that.

> "What's the first thing Donald Trump did in Syria? He lifted sanctions, so now Syria can accept investment money. And investment money is going to build infrastructure, including better roads, which make trade easier, especially with Turkey, which is the 800-pound gorilla on the block. An upgrade of the port of Latakia, so ships can come in and make trade easier. It's building the economy."

The claim he attaches is unhedged and datable: "mark my words, in 20 years there will be no such thing as a Syrian terrorist, because that economy is going to be on track. So it may not look pretty right now, but this was the right thing to do."

He does not present the leadership as an improvement, only the policy, the same conversation calling al-Julani "an al-Qaeda leader" and "the number two in ISIS," and describing the preceding American approach as "the most screwed up policy on Syria that was possible."

See also

- Al-Julani
- The al-Qaeda foot soldier
- Economic roots of terrorism
- Syria as a regime-change template
