ISTANBUL 

The US State Department revoked the Foreign Terrorist Organization designation of the al-Nusrah Front group, also known as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), according to an unpublished Federal Register notice on Monday.

"In consultation with the Attorney General and the Secretary of the Treasury, I hereby revoke the designation of al-Nusrah Front, also known as Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (and other aliases) as a Foreign Terrorist Organization," Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in the notice dated June 23 and scheduled for publication Tuesday.

The revocation will take effect Tuesday, Rubio said in a later statement.

"Tomorrow's action follows the announced dissolution of HTS and the Syrian government’s commitment to combat terrorism in all its forms," Rubio said.

"This action also builds on the momentum of the June 30 Executive Order ‘Providing for the Revocation of Syria Sanctions’ and recognizes the positive actions taken by the new Syrian government under President Ahmed al-Sharaa," he added.

HTS has been on the US Foreign Terrorist Organization list since 2018, when the group was added to the existing designation of its predecessor, the al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra.

The decision followed President Donald Trump’s move to terminate US sanctions and the national emergency related to Syria.

Trump announced at an investment forum in the Saudi capital Riyadh on May 13 that he would lift the “brutal and crippling” sanctions on Syria. A day later, he held a landmark meeting with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa in Saudi Arabia—the first meeting between US and Syrian leaders in 25 years.

Bashar al-Assad, who ruled Syria for nearly a quarter century, fled to Russia on Dec. 8, 2024, marking the end of the Baath Party’s decades-long rule, which began in 1963.