US revokes foreign terrorist designation for Syria's HTS amid sanctions ease

President Donald Trump's administration has revoked the foreign terrorist organisation designation for al-Nusra Front, best described as an earlier incarnation of the Syrian rebel group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), according to a State Department memo filed on Monday.

The move is seen as a major step as Washington moves to ease sanctions on Syria.

The 23 June dated memo was signed by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and was published in a preview of the Federal Register before official publication on Tuesday.

The move comes a week after Trump signed an executive order terminating a US sanctions programme on Syria, to help end the country's isolation from the international financial system and building on Washington's pledge to help it rebuild after a devastating civil war.

"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 wrote in the memo.

In December, Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa led HTS, together with other Islamist rebels, in a lightning offensive that ousted Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.

Sharaa's HTS severed ties with al-Qaeda in 2016, rebranding the group's name to Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, in an attempt to free itself from the terrorist designation. 

Although HTS formally announced its disaffiliation from al-Qaeda in 2016 and repositioned itself as a locally focused Islamist movement with the goal of overthrowing the Assad regime, the US government long maintained that these changes "did not alter the nature or objectives of the organisation".

Until recently, Washington continued to treat HTS as effectively synonymous with al-Nusra, arguing that it retained the same leadership, infrastructure, and extremist objectives despite its distancing rhetoric.

Syria's foreign ministry had no immediate comment.

Sharaa and Trump met in Riyadh in May where, in a major policy shift, Trump unexpectedly announced he would lift US sanctions on Syria, prompting Washington to significantly ease its measures.