The United States on Monday announced that it was revoking its “foreign terrorist organization” designation of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a group once linked to Al-Qaeda that took control of Syria in December 2024.
“In consultation with the attorney general and the secretary of the treasury, I hereby revoke the designation of al-Nusrah Front, also known as Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (and other aliases) as a foreign terrorist organization,” said US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a memo, with the move to formally take effect on Tuesday.
An armed coalition led by HTS leader Ahmed al-Sharaa overthrew then-Syrian president Bashar al-Assad in December, ending half a century of brutal rule by the latter’s family.
The former Islamist guerrilla fighter’s rule as interim president has been cautiously welcomed in Washington, Europe, and elsewhere.
While historic foe Israel initially viewed Sharaa with suspicion, it later expressed interest in striking normalization agreements with Syria and neighboring Lebanon. It has insisted that the strategic Golan Heights — which Israel captured from Syria in 1967 and later annexed — would remain part of Israel under any peace accord.
US President Donald Trump last week formally dismantled US sanctions against Syria, saying he hoped to reintegrate the war-battered country into the global economy.
Trump had lifted most sanctions against Syria in May, responding to appeals from Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
The United States had also already removed a bounty from Sharaa’s head after he came to power.
On Friday, Syria said it was willing to cooperate with the United States to reimplement a 1974 disengagement agreement with Israel.
The Assad regime was toppled after more than 13 years of civil war by a rebel offensive led by Sharaa.
The rebellion was sparked in 2011 by protests against the Assads’ brutal rule that were part of the Arab Spring movement.
Since Assad’s fall, Israel has carried out strikes and raids in Syria aimed at denying military assets to the Islamist-led interim administration.
It has also deployed troops across the demilitarized zone on the Syrian side of the 1974 armistice line that used to separate the opposing forces on the Golan, with Israeli troops regularly carrying out raids in southern Syria.
The United Nations considers Israel’s takeover of the buffer zone a violation of the 1974 disengagement accord between Israel and Syria. Israel says the accord fell apart since one of the sides was no longer in a position to implement it, and that the takeover was a defensive move to protect itself from potential hostile forces that could have exploited the power vacuum.
The two countries are currently engaged in “advanced talks” to end official hostilities and resolve the buffer zone issue, a senior Israeli official told The Times of Israel last week.
The contacts are focused on coordination around security matters, said the official, who would not speculate on when a full peace deal between the two enemy states could turn into reality.
The neighboring states have been in conflict for decades, including direct and often bitter combat from the 1948 War of Independence through the 1982 First Lebanon War.