The US had also announced a $10m reward for the capture of Syria’s current leader, al-Sharaa, and listed Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the organisation he ran before its dissolution with the fall of al-Assad, as a “Foreign Terrorist Organization”.

The president's administration showed few signs of offering easy progress, but the removal of crippling sanctions give Syrians a chance to chip away at their $400 billion rebuild.