Homepage
News
Trump orders review of Syrian leader’s terrorist d...
Trump orders review of Syrian leader’s terrorist designation
01 July 2025, 08:15
The US special envoy for the country has compared militant-turned-president Ahmed al-Sharaa to George Washington
US President Donald Trump has dismantled much of the decades-old American sanctions program imposed on Syria and has ordered a review of the terrorist designation of Ahmed al-Sharaa, who led the coalition of Islamist forces that toppled the previous government of Bashar Assad.
Trump signed an executive order on Monday, easing broad financial restrictions while maintaining targeted sanctions against Assad and his former government, which was deposed late last year by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and other militant groups.
US sanctions against what it designates as Foreign Terrorist Organizations will also remain in place. However, Trump’s order directs Secretary of State Marco Rubio to review HTS’s designation, as well as al-Sharaa’s label as a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist.”
Washington will also revisit its designation of Syria as a State Sponsor of Terrorism, first imposed in 1979.
The decision follows Trump’s May meeting with al-Sharaa in Riyadh, where discussions focused on Syria’s reconstruction and potential normalization of relations with Israel. At the time, Trump pledged to give the new leadership in Damascus “a chance at greatness.”
In order to oversee Washington’s growing ties with Damascus, he appointed Thomas Barrack, his ambassador to Turkey and a longtime confidant, as US special envoy for Syria.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, Barrack acknowledged the “controversy here, of somebody who had been al-Nusrah and had been considered a bad guy who all of a sudden becomes the leader” – drawing a historical parallel between Syria’s political shift and the early years of American independence.
“If you remember, we had a revolutionary war that lasted 14 months. [sic] And we had brutality… And from 1776, when we declared independence, it was 12 years until we got a president. And who was the president? The president was a general… It was George Washington,” Barrack told reporters during a State Department briefing call.
So if you take Syria… you have a general who transitioned from wartime into a position of being the leader of a reframed new country that needs everything – and that’s basically what’s happening.
Rubio previously warned that Syria had become “a playground for jihadist groups, including ISIS and others,” acknowledging that the new Syrian leadership “didn’t pass their background check with the FBI,” but insisted the US must support them in order to prevent wider regional instability.
“The US is taking further actions to support a Syria that is stable, unified, and at peace with itself and its neighbors,” Rubio wrote in a post on X on Monday.
We use cookies to improve your browsing experience and to maintain the proper functioning of this website. If you keep using our website, we assume that you are ok with that. For more information, read our policy.