The United States has removed Syria from its list of countries that sponsor terrorism, and Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa says a dark spot has been removed. The step ends a designation that had been in effect since 1979 and signals a striking shift in relations between Washington and Damascus.
“A painful chapter in the past has been closed. Now we are embarking on a path of development, reconstruction and renewal,” al-Sharaa said in Damascus on Tuesday, a day after the country was taken off the list. The language cast the delisting as a turning point for a nation emerging from years of war and isolation.
Al-Sharaa took office after the Islamist rebel group HTS, which he led, overthrew Syria’s longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December 2024. HTS had previously been linked to the al-Qaeda network but has since disbanded, and al-Sharaa’s transformation away from jihadism has been widely reported.
That evolution has been accompanied by a rapid diplomatic thaw. This summer, al-Sharaa met US President Donald Trump at the NATO summit in Ankara, an encounter that would have been unthinkable only a short time earlier and that helped set the stage for the removal from the terror list.
For Syria, the practical implications are considerable, potentially easing the country’s path back into the international financial and diplomatic system after decades on the outside. For Washington, the decision represents a bet that a former insurgent leader can be a partner rather than a pariah, a wager whose consequences will play out over the reconstruction al-Sharaa now promises.
