Seven months after leading the rebel offensive that ousted Bashar al-Assad, and nearly thirteen years since being designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) by the U.S. State Department, the group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) was taken off the list on July 8. Removing the designation was the U.S. bureaucracy’s latest step in catching up to President Trump’s May call for suspending all sanctions on Syria, which came in the context of his landmark Riyadh meeting with former HTS leader and current president Ahmed al-Sharaa. The State Department explained that it took this action following “the announced dissolution of HTS and the Syrian government’s commitment to combat terrorism in all its forms.”. More such announcements can be expected in the months ahead as officials continue implementing Trump’s policy, likely including eventual congressional revocation of the Caesar sanctions. The FTO news is also historic because it represents the first time since the September 11 attacks that a jihadist organization was taken off the FTO list without being fully defunct—rather, the group’s fighters and governance apparatus have become key parts of Syria’s transitional government.
Delisting Hayat Tahrir al-Sham: Implications for U.S. Counterterrorism and Syria Policy (Aaron Y. Zelin – The Washington Institute for Near East Policy)
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