US ends terrorist designation of Syrian militant leaders

The Trump administration revoked the terrorist designation for Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, the militant group who overthrew President Bashar al’Assad and assumed control of the Syrian government. 

The group was formed as Syria’s al-Qaeda branch. In an astounding turnaround, the group’s interim leader Ahmed al-Sharaa went from a $10 million U.S. bounty on his head to the de facto leader of Syria who scored a meeting with President Donald Trump in June. 

Al-Sharaa had been campaigning hard for a relationship with Washington and sanctions relief: He offered to build a Trump Tower in Damascus, ease hostilities with Israel, and give U.S. access to Syria's oil and gas. He worked to soften the image of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham and promised an inclusive governing structure. 

"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," Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote in a memo made public Monday. 

TRUMP TO SIGN ORDER LIFTING SANCTIONS ON SYRIA

The move comes a week after Trump signed an executive order ending sanctions imposed on Syria. Trump said he’d lift the sanctions on Syria to give the nation, ravaged by decades of civil war, a chance at economic development. 

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that lifting sanctions would help Syria "reestablish ties to global commerce and build international confidence," while continuing to prevent "Assad, his cronies, terrorists, and other illicit actors from attempting to destabilize Syria and the region." 

HTS, a Sunni Islamist group, emerged out of Jabhat al-Nusra, Syria’s former al-Qaeda affiliate. The State Department under Trump in 2018 added HTS to the existing al-Nusra foreign terrorist designation.

WHY SYRIA PLAYS A KEY ROLE IN TRUMP’S PLANS FOR MIDDLE EAST PEACE

Some sanctions still will need to be lifted by Congress. In a bipartisan pairing from opposite sides of the political spectrum, Reps. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., recently introduced legislation to lift sanctions on Syria. 

U.S. sanctions have included financial penalties on any foreign individual or company that provided material support to the Syrian government and prohibited anyone in the U.S. from dealing in any Syrian entity, including oil and gas. Syrian banks also were effectively cut off from global financial systems.