The United States has revoked the foreign terrorist organization designation for the HTS, which took over Syria after toppling President Bashar al-Assad, as the new regime plans to sign a normalization agreement with the Israeli regime.
“In consultation with the Attorney General and the Secretary of the Treasury, I hereby revoke the designation of al-Nusra Front, also known as Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (and other aliases) as a Foreign Terrorist Organization,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote in the June 23 memo, which was filed on Monday.
The memo was published in a preview of the Federal Register before official publication on Tuesday.
The move comes a week after US President Donald Trump signed an executive order to ease unilateral US sanctions against Syria.
The sanctions on Syria have been in place since 1979 in response to Damascus’s foreign policy toward Israel.
Since Assad was toppled, Israel has conducted hundreds of airstrikes against Syria and occupied large swathes of territory beyond the Golan Heights.
The new Syrian regime has been signaling a willingness to normalize ties with Tel Aviv.
The two sides are reportedly engaged in negotiations to reach a normalization agreement by 2026.
