U.S. drops Syria’s designation as terrorism sponsor

The U.S. State Department on Monday removed Syria’s designation as a state sponsor of terrorism, which had been in place since 1979. The move eliminated the last major barrier to private-sector investment in Syria, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said. Syria could now reintegrate into the global economy, he said. The U.S. government has systematically removed sanctions against Syria since normalizing relations in 2025, but the terrorism sponsor designation still carried restrictions on some financial transactions and foreign assistance from the United States.

Syria’s foreign ministry echoed Rubio’s statements, expressing hope for future economic prosperity and partnerships with the United States. The ministry also said it hoped other constraints would also be removed in the future. Syrians are not currently allowed to enter the United States, unless they already have lawful permanent residency or another exception.

Rubio said the designation was removed in recognition of the Syrian government’s previous counterterrorism actions and commitments to continue them in the future. Over the past year, Syria formally joined the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS and conducted operations against groups aligned with ISIS, Al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, and Iran, he said. However, Syrian government forces have also been accused of killing hundreds of people belonging to religious or ethnic minorities over the past year.

The State Department also removed the Al-Nusra Front, or Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, from its list of specially designated global terrorist organizations. Al-Nusra, which was formerly affiliated with Al-Qaeda, toppled the government of Bashar al-Assad and took control of most of Syria in 2024. Current Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa was the group’s commander. Al-Nusra has since integrated into the Syrian military.

Dig deeper: Read Esther Arnusch’s report on killings in Syria, attributed to government forces, that occurred last summer.