President of Syria Ahmed al-Sharaa (L) meets with President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington, D.C., on November 10, 2025. On Monday, the State Department delisted Syria as a state sponsor of terrorism. File Photo by Syrian Presidency/UPI | License Photo
Aug. 24 (UPI) -- The U.S. State Department officially delisted Syria as a state sponsor of terrorism on Monday, marking a significant step toward the country's reintegration into the global economy and the international community.
The announcement by Secretary of State Marco Rubio comes about a month and a half after President Donald Trump informed Congress of his intent to lift Syria's decades-old terrorism designation that barred it from most U.S. foreign assistance and clamped down on what could be exported to it. It also meant the United States would oppose foreign institutions, such as the World Bank, granting it loans.
Along with the delisting of Syria, Rubio said he also removed Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, the coalition of northern Syria-based Sunni Islamist groups that led the military campaign that toppled Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad in late 2024, from its list of specially designated global terrorists.
"These actions were all taken in recognition of the positive actions taken and further commitments by the Syrian government under President Ahmed al-Sharaa to fully distance Syria from acts of international terrorism," Rubio said in a statement, listing as reasons Damascus' joining the Global Coalition to Defeat the Islamic State and conducting terrorism-disrupting operations targeting ISIS and Iran-backed Hezbollah.
