WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is revoking the terrorism designation of a group led by Syria’s new president as part of a broader U.S. engagement with the transitional government since the ouster of former leader Bashar Assad late last year.
In a statement released Monday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the move, which will take effect Tuesday, “recognizes the positive actions taken by the new Syrian government” under President Ahmad al-Sharaa.
Earlier Monday, the Federal Register published an advance notice, which said Rubio made the decision on June 23 in consultation with the attorney general and treasury secretary.
The decision had not been previously announced, although it was made as the Trump administration has been moving to ease or end many U.S. sanctions that had been imposed during Assad’s rule.
The step looks to further end Syria’s isolation since a lightning rebel offensive ousted the Assad family from decades of rule and give the new government a boost as it tries to rebuild a country shattered by 13 years of civil war.
President Donald Trump, before having dinner Monday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House, repeated that he previously had been told that Syria’s new leader “comes from a very tough background.”
“I said, ‘Well, you know, I’m not that surprised. It’s a tough part of the world,’” said Trump, who met with al-Sharaa in Saudi Arabia in May. “But I was very impressed by him. But we took the sanctions off because we want to give them a chance.”
The brief notice offered no details about the revocation of the foreign terrorist organization designation for the al-Nusrah Front, also known as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.
Al-Nusrah was originally designated a foreign terrorist organization for its previous affiliation with al-Qaida. In 2017, it split and changed its name to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which the first Trump administration added to the initial designation.
Syria has been improving relations with the United States and other Western countries following the fall of Assad in December in an offensive led by al-Sharaa ’s group.
On June 30, seven days after Rubio signed the revocation, Trump inked an executive order ending many U.S. economic sanctions on Syria, following through on a promise he made to al-Sharaa when they met.
“This FTO revocation is an important step in fulfilling President Trump’s vision of a stable, unified, and peaceful Syria,” Rubio said in his statement.
Netanyahu, speaking across the table Monday from Trump and Rubio, agreed that the change of leadership in Syria “presents opportunities for stability, for security and eventually for peace.”
“There’s a lot to lose by going back to conflict,” the Israeli leader said. “And there’s a lot to gain by moving towards peace.”
Trump’s executive order did not rescind sanctions imposed on Assad, his top aides, family members and officials who had been determined to have committed human rights abuses or been involved in drug trafficking or part of Syria’s chemical weapons program.
It also leaves intact a major set of sanctions passed by Congress targeting anyone doing business with or offering support to Syria’s military, intelligence or other suspect institutions.
While the Trump administration has passed temporary waivers on those sanctions, known as the Caesar Act, they can only be permanently repealed by law.