President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he thinks he will remove Syria from a list of state sponsors of terrorism, a move that would sweep away one of the last vestiges of US sanctions against Damascus.
Mr Trump made the announcement during a meeting with the Syrian President Ahmad Al Shara at a Nato summit in Turkey.
Asked whether he would remove Syria from the list, Mr Trump replied: “I think I will. Why wouldn't I?” He said Mr Al Shara had “done a great job”.
Turning to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Mr Trump said: “Any problems with that? I think we should.”
In June 2025, Mr Trump directed Mr Rubio to review Syria’s state sponsor of terrorism (SST) designation. The State Department said the review was continuing and in compliance with the applicable laws and criteria established by Congress.
“We don’t have a specific timeline to share at the moment,” a State Department official told The National. “There are a number of steps that would need to be taken by both the department and the President before the SST designation could be removed.
Syria is one of four countries on the US blacklist, along with Iran, Cuba and North Korea. Its designation dates back to 1979 and is based on the Assad regime's support for militants such as Hezbollah.
After the fall of the Assad regime in 2024, Mr Trump announced the lifting of sanctions on Syria last year, but the state sponsor of terrorism listing had been kept under review. A bipartisan group of US politicians last week wrote to Mr Rubio, urging him to remove Syria from the list of state sponsors of terrorism.
They said Mr Al Shara had shown a commitment to tackling terrorism and that the designation is harming the country's economic recovery.
The politicians said the legal grounds for the designation of state sponsor of terrorism no longer apply and the listing “remains a significant barrier to achieving the Trump administration and congressional priority of giving Syria a chance to succeed”.
In addition to countering ISIS in Syria, Damascus has taken “serious steps” to counter Hezbollah’s networks in the country, particularly by tackling transnational weapons and financial flows, they said.
