U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Monday that the Trump administration is revoking the terrorist designation for Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the former Syrian rebel group and Al-Qaeda offshoot previously led by Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa.
The decision to remove HTS from the State Department’s list of designated foreign terrorist organizations, effective July 8, follows U.S. President Donald Trump’s meeting with al-Sharaa in Saudi Arabia in May and promises to take steps to normalize relations with the new government.
“Tomorrow’s action follows the announced dissolution of HTS and the Syrian government’s commitment to combat terrorism in all its forms,” Rubio stated. “This action also builds on the momentum of the June 30 executive order ‘Providing for the Revocation of Syria Sanctions’ and recognizes the positive actions taken by the new Syrian government under President Ahmed al-Sharaa.”
HTS formally dissolved in January following the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad from power in December after 14 years of civil war, but the group has remained on the U.S. foreign terrorist list in one form or another since its predecessor, the Nusrah Front, was first designated in 2014.
The delisting of HTS is the latest step in al-Sharaa’s remarkable transformation from an al-Qaeda terrorist leader and rebel into an internationally recognized leader of Syria on the cusp of normalization with Washington.
Al-Sharaa, who was born in Saudi Arabia to a Syrian family from the Golan Heights, was first sent to Syria in 2011 by Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to establish that group’s Syrian branch.
Over the next 14 years, al-Sharaa, who fought under the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, successfully navigated HTS through official breaks with Baghdadi and al-Qaeda and mergers with other rebel groups, even as the State Department continued to accuse HTS as recently as 2024 of having used child suicide bombers and other terrorist tactics.
“This FTO revocation is an important step in fulfilling President Trump’s vision of a stable, unified and peaceful Syria,” Rubio stated.
The State Department website lists 20 examples of delisted terrorist groups, many of which are defunct, like the Abu Nidal Organization and the Khmer Rouge.
Al-Sharaa was separately listed, under his alias, as a U.S. specially designated global terrorist in 2013. Monday’s announcement does not mention if that designation will also be lifted on Tuesday.
