DAMASCUS, Syria — Visa and Mastercard said they had carried out their first international card payments in Syria in more than a decade, days after Washington delisted the country as a state sponsor of terrorism.

Mastercard said in a statement that it and Qatar National Bank (QNB) Group “have processed Syria’s first international card payment in more than 15 years, marking an important milestone in the modernization of Syria’s payments ecosystem.”

Visa in a statement on Wednesday said it had “tested the first live international transaction in Syria,” also hailing “an important milestone in supporting the country’s financial services sector.”

It said the move came in cooperation with Lebanon’s Fransabank, which it called “the acquiring financial institution,” and with local electronic payments company Paymera.

Paymera said on Thursday that it had carried out the first electronic payment using Visa.

Since the December 2024 ousting of longtime Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad, several Western countries have lifted sanctions imposed on the country after its nearly 14-year civil war erupted in 2011.

On Monday, the United States removed Syria from its list of state sponsors of terrorism, rescinding a decades-old designation that came with severe economic restrictions and marking another step in warming ties between the countries.

The Visa statement said the test was........

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