The UN Security Council voted on Friday to remove Jabhat Al Nusra and Hayat Tahrir Al Sham from its sanctions list, marking a significant shift in how the international community is treating Syria’s leadership.
The decision lifts an assets freeze, travel ban and arms embargo imposed under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, measures that had bound member states to restrict the groups’ financing and movements.
The sanctions dated back to May 2014, when the Security Council’s sanctions committee designated Al Nusra Front – an Al-Qaeda former affiliate in Syria – at the height of the country’s civil war.
Al Nusra Front formally severed ties with Al Qaeda in 2016 and later rebranded, merging into Hayat Tahrir in 2017.
The UN continued to treat Hayat Tahrir as a successor entity, keeping it under the same sanctions regime designed to combat Al Qaeda and later ISIS as Syria’s conflict drew in regional and global powers.
Friday’s move follows the delisting in November of Syria’s President Ahmad Al Shara, and Interior Minister Anas Khattab both previously subject to UN sanctions.
Mr Al Shara, who led the coalition that ousted former president Bashar Al Assad in December 2024, has since sought to recast himself from insurgent commander to head of state.
As first reported by The National, the US pushed to remove the now dissolved Hayat Tahrir from the sanctions list, arguing that Syria’s new authorities needed room to govern and attract reconstruction funds.
China initially objected, reflecting broader divisions among Security Council members over how quickly to normalise ties.
Maya Ungar, a UN analyst at the International Crisis Group, said Beijing’s hesitation was less about Hayat Tahrir itself and more about influence.
The delisting, she said, provided China with an “opportunity for leverage over the Syrian government to influence their policies on counterterrorism, “and particularly their relationship with ETIM, a group of Uighur militants close to the Syrian government and who China considers a direct national security threat.”
Ms Ungar pointed out that the removal of Hayat Tahrir from UN sanctions “wasn’t necessary for recognition of Shara’s government, but it bolsters the legitimacy of his step away from jihad, especially important as the US and others increasingly rely on his government as a partner in counterterrorism.”
“Al Shara and his government have enjoyed broad international recognition for months, evidenced by his appearance at UNGA, visit to the White House and more,” she said. “However, the elephant in the room has remained the UN’s terror designations, which lived on for months past US and EU removal.”
She said the delisting will open up further space for a broader conversation about the future of the UN’s role in Syria at the Security Council.
