U.S. President Donald Trump has revoked economic sanctions imposed on Syria and, as part of the move, ordered the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control to strike a number of Russian entities from its Syria-related blacklist. The executive order, signed on 1 July, follows similar steps by the European Union earlier this year to ease restrictions on Damascus. Entities delisted include state arms exporter Rosoboronexport; banks Tempbank, Mir Business Bank, Russian Financial Alliance Bank and RFK Bank; state trading firm Promsyryeimport; and Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the former head of the International Chess Federation. Most of the companies had been sanctioned for transactions with the Syrian government, while Ilyumzhinov had been blacklisted in 2015 over alleged financial ties to President Bashar al-Assad’s regime. Washington stressed that the action applies only to measures tied to the Syria programme. Rosoboronexport and several of the banks remain subject to separate U.S. sanctions connected to Russia’s activities in Ukraine and other jurisdictions, leaving them barred from dollar funding and many U.S. transactions. The administration said it will monitor Damascus’s rapprochement talks with Israel before considering any broader relief.