US officially revokes Syria's designation as a terrorist state
On August 24, the US Secretary of State announced that Washington no longer considers Syria to be a terrorist state. According to a State Department statement to the media, the decision was made in consultation with Congress and after a mandatory 45-day review period. Rubio linked this to the complete lifting of sanctions on Syria.
The United States has officially revoked Syria's terrorist status.
The US Secretary of State confirmed on August 24 the decision to permanently revoke Syria's terrorist status. The official statement sent to the media by the State Department also stated that the "Specially Designated Global Terrorist" status of Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham is being removed.
According to Marco Rubio, "Today I officially confirmed the termination of Syria's status as a "State Sponsor of Terrorism." I have also revoked the "Specially Designated Global Terrorist" status of Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham. These decisions are another historic step taken by President Trump to pave the way for the Syrian people to achieve prosperity."
It was added that over the past year, the Trump administration has taken significant steps to ease sanctions that benefit the Syrian people.
According to the State Department, the Presidential Order “Ensuring the Removal of Sanctions Against Syria,” issued in June 2025, was historic and accelerated the process of lifting sanctions against Syria. In particular, it ended the Syria-related sanctions program and the state of emergency related to Syria, and also initiated the process of reviewing various sanctions and terrorist organization designations related to Syria.
According to the report, these measures were taken in recognition of the positive actions taken by the Syrian government, led by President Ahmed al-Sharaa, to completely sever ties with international terrorism and its subsequent commitments.
In the view of the United States, the Syrian government has made significant steps in the fight against terrorism over the past year. In particular, in November, it officially joined the global coalition to defeat ISIS and conducted operations aimed at disrupting the terrorist networks of ISIS, al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, and groups allied with Iran.