{"id":328745,"date":"2026-08-24T21:48:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T21:48:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/328745\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T21:48:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T21:48:13","slug":"us-pulls-syria-from-list-of-state-sponsors-of-terrorism-amid-warming-relations-with-damascus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/328745\/","title":{"rendered":"US pulls Syria from list of state sponsors of terrorism amid warming relations with Damascus"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 The State Department<\/a> has formally moved to take Syria off its state sponsors of terrorism list<\/a> as the Trump administration continues to mend fences with Damascus, the Treasury Department announced.<\/p>\n

The decision to drop Syria\u2019s designation as a state sponsor of terrorism was announced weeks ago and is subject to congressional review. Syria has had a state sponsor of terror designation from the US since 1979.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis action unlocks new potential for Syria\u2019s economic revitalization and progress,\u201d Secretary of State Marco Rubio said of the move<\/a>. \u201cThe Trump Administration continues to advance U.S. national security to achieve peace, prosperity, and security in the Middle East.\u201d<\/p>\n

A state \u200csponsor \u2060of terrorism means that a designated country is blacklisted from critical foreign aid and military exports and is subject to financial penalties. <\/p>\n

President Trump met with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa in Turkey last month. AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Since the toppling of the Bashar al-Assad regime in late 2024, Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa has worked to normalize relations with the US and has lobbied for his country to be removed from all blacklists. <\/p>\n

The move on Monday came in tandem with the removal of the Nusrah Front \u2014 a group al-Sharaa founded that fought the Assad regime during the civil war\u2014 \u2060as a specially designated global terrorist organization.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration has moved to wind down longstanding punitive measures against Syria. Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cToday\u2019s action will help foster additional investment in Syria to promote political and economic stability,\u201d Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement about the move.<\/p>\n

Al-Sharaa has faced skeptics due to his past affiliations with al-Qaeda, which he cut off, and he eventually fought against ISIS during the Syrian Civil War.<\/p>\n

President Trump met with al-Sharaa in Turkey while attending the NATO summit last month and praised the Syrian leader as \u201cfantastic\u201d and \u201chighly respected.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the time, he indicated that he planned to take Syria off America\u2019s state sponsors of terrorism list.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I will, yeah. Why wouldn\u2019t I?\u201d Trump told reporters when asked. \u201cHe\u2019s done a great job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa has worked to rebuild his country\u2019s standing on the world stage. NurPhoto via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Syrian Finance Minister Muhammad Yasser Bernia heralded Monday\u2019s move as a \u201cmajor and historic success for Syrian diplomacy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis represents a significant and final step in strengthening Syria\u2019s connection to the global economic and financial system, attracting modern investments and technologies, and supporting development opportunities,\u201d Bernia added. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 The State Department has formally moved to take Syria off its state sponsors of terrorism list…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":328746,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[425,9,11,10,49,51,50,87,18538,4661,3694,18543,58],"class_list":["post-328745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-foreign-policy","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news","tag-politics","tag-state-department","tag-syria","tag-terrorism","tag-treasury-department","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328745\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}