President Donald Trump (R) shakes hands with Syria’s interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in May. File Photo by Bandar Al-Jaloud/Saudi Royal Palace | License Photo
The Trump administration announced Monday it will rescind the terrorist designation given to the group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.
In a document from the State Department, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote that the United States has revoked “the designation of al-Nusrah Front, also known as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, as a foreign terrorist organization.”
The revocation will go into effect upon its official publication Tuesday, but the letter already has been made available to read by the general public.
HTS is currently leading Syria after it led the overthrow of former dictator Bashar Assad. The group’s origins come from a Syrian branch of al-Qaeda, but it severed ties several years ago.
President Donald Trump directed the State Department last week to review the status of HTS as a terrorist group as part of an executive order that removed several sanctions formerly levied on Syria.
“I took off the sanctions because if I didn’t do that, they wouldn’t have had a chance. And Syria has a chance,” Trump said last week during a press conference.
