US revokes terror designation for Al-Qaeda-linked HTS
The US move comes exactly four months after HTS-affiliated gunmen participated in the massacre of over 1,600 Alawites on Syria's coast
US President Donald Trump has revoked the Foreign Terrorist Organization designation for the Nusra Front, later known as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), according to a State Department memo filed on 7 July.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio signed the memo ordering the move on 23 June.
“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,” Rubio stated in the memo.
The US move comes exactly four months after militants affiliated with the group helped carry out the massacre of over 1,600 Alawite civilians. An investigation by Reuters concluded that the HTS leadership in Damascus was responsible.
The Nusra Front was officially established in 2012 as an offshoot of the Islamic State of Iraq (later known as ISIS) and was formerly the official Al-Qaeda franchise in the country.
The US, Israel, Britain, France, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Turkiye all cooperated to covertly support the Nusra Front in hopes of toppling the government of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.
By placing the Nusra Front on its terror list, Washington and its allies were able to plausibly deny their covert support for the group. US and allied support for Nusra was mostly funneled to it through other armed groups known as the Free Syrian Army (FSA).
The operation to topple Assad using Al-Qaeda-linked groups promoting genocide against Syria's minorities, dubbed “Timber Sycamore” by the CIA, plunged the country into war for 14 years starting in 2011.
In December 2024, the Nusra Front (by then rebranded as HTS) successfully ousted Assad and took power in Damascus.
HTS leader and Syrian interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa and Trump met in Riyadh in May. Trump praised his past as a Nusra and ISIS chief.
After the meeting, Trump announced he would lift US sanctions on Syria.
Last week, Trump signed an executive order terminating the sanctions, which were imposed to destroy the Syrian economy as part of the effort to depose Assad.
The sanctions, combined with the US occupation of Syria's oil fields, prevented reconstruction following the war and helped plunge the country into an economic crisis, in particular after 2019. The Syrian currency lost most of its value against the dollar, pushing millions of Syrians into desperate poverty.