Rubio Scratches Syria Off the Terror-Sponsor List — Cuba, Iran, and North Korea Remain

Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday formally rescinded Syria’s designation as a State Sponsor of Terrorism, ending a listing that had stood since December 1979. The same announcement delisted Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, also known as the Nusrah Front, as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist. The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control removed HTS from the Specially Designated Nationals list.

The actions took effect after the mandatory 45-day congressional notice period that began when President Trump notified lawmakers on July 8 of his intent to lift the designation. Rubio said the decisions recognized “positive actions taken and further commitments by the Syrian government under President Ahmed al-Sharaa to fully distance Syria from acts of international terrorism.” He cited Syria’s formal entry into the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS in November 2025 and operations against ISIS, al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, and Iran-aligned networks. Rescinding the SST and SDGT labels, he said, “eliminates the final major barriers for private sector investment in Syria.”

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the move would “help foster additional investment in Syria to promote political and economic stability.” Al-Sharaa called the decision historic. Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani told Reuters there was “no longer any obstacle to investment, doing business and rebuilding economic life in Syria.”

Syria was the first country placed on the State Sponsors list in 1979 under Hafez al-Assad. The designation survived the entire rule of his son Bashar, who was overthrown in December 2024 by a rebel coalition led by al-Sharaa. HTS, which al-Sharaa once commanded, was al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate until he publicly broke with the network in 2016. The State Department revoked HTS’s Foreign Terrorist Organization designation in July 2025 and had already taken al-Sharaa off the individual SDGT list. Concurrent with Monday’s delisting, OFAC designated two former HTS affiliates it said still support al-Qaeda and Hurras al-Din.

Only Cuba, Iran, and North Korea remain on the State Sponsors of Terrorism list. The SST label had blocked most U.S. foreign assistance, restricted dual-use exports, and required Washington to oppose multilateral lending. Trump’s June 2025 executive order had already terminated the broader Syria sanctions program. Monday’s step is the last major U.S. terrorism designation standing between Damascus and private capital.

The bet is explicit: a former al-Qaeda commander now running the Syrian state, in exchange for breaking with Iran, fighting ISIS, and opening the country to investment. Whether that bargain holds will be measured in Damascus’s next operations against remnant jihadist cells and in whether Western banks and firms treat the legal change as real enough to write checks.