Syria’s State Sponsor of Terrorism Designation Advances Toward Removal Under White House Pressure

Syria's designation as a State Sponsor of Terrorism, in place since 1979, has emerged as the last structural barrier to the country's full reintegration into international financial markets, and the Trump administration is moving to resolve it. Syria has been on the SST list since Congress created it in 1979, making it the longest-standing member of the designation. The original designation stemmed from the Assad regime's support for Palestinian armed groups, a rationale later reinforced by Syria's direct involvement in planning terrorist attacks and its backing of Hezbollah. Under President Ahmad al-Sharaa, who consolidated power following Bashar al-Assad's ouster in December 2024, Damascus is now pressing Washington for removal, with legislative and executive levers moving in parallel.

The broader Syria sanctions architecture has already been substantially dismantled. On May 13, 2025, President Trump announced he would lift sanctions on Syria, and the Treasury Department issued General License 25 alongside a 180-day State Department waiver of mandatory Caesar Act sanctions as an interim step. On June 30 and July 7, 2025, Trump issued Executive Order 14312, permanently revoking the Syrian Sanctions Regulations, 31 C.F.R. Part 542, and the State Department revoked the Foreign Terrorist Organization designation of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, rendering the comprehensive Syria sanctions program defunct. On Dec. 18, 2025, Congress completed the statutory rollback by repealing the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act of 2019 as part of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026. That legislation had originally been signed by Trump in December 2019 and targeted the Assad government for human rights abuses during Syria's civil war. The repeal was codified in Section 8369 of the FY 2026 NDAA, entitled "Repeal of Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act of 2019," and it requires the president to report to Congress every 180 days for four years, certifying that Syria's government is meeting benchmarks on counterterrorism cooperation, minority rights, and human rights accountability.

The SST designation, however, remains in force, and it carries independent legal weight that sanctions waivers and executive orders cannot fully reach. Syria was originally designated on the initial SST list in 1979 and remains listed despite the government's other steps to dismantle the sanctions regime; significant export controls still apply under Section 1754(c) of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019, Section 40 of the Arms Export Control Act, and Section 620A of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961. Until delisted, Syria is also denied sovereign immunity under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act if sued in U.S. courts. Removing the designation requires a formal certification by the president or secretary of state to Congress, and the statute provides two procedural pathways: a six-month review provision and a "fundamental change" finding. The six-month review provision is generally preferred because it preserves re-designation flexibility, whereas countries removed through the fundamental change provision have never been returned to the list.

Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., opened the current legislative push, announcing he had sponsored an amendment to eliminate all remaining sanctions on Syria and claiming agreement from the State Department [POLITICO]. Wilson and Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Member Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., previously co-authored an op-ed in Foreign Policy urging Congress to act on Caesar Act repeal ahead of the Senate's NDAA vote. Shaheen, as ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, secured the Caesar Act repeal provision in the FY 2026 NDAA, which passed and went to the president's desk. On the SST question specifically, the State Department confirmed that a June executive order directed Secretary of State Marco Rubio to review Syria's SST inclusion, conditioning removal on demonstrated progress against foreign terrorist threats, deportation of Palestinian terrorists, banning of Palestinian terrorist groups, assistance in preventing an Islamic State resurgence, and assumption of control over IS detention facilities in northeastern Syria. The department added that a "number of steps" from both State and the White House would be required before any change takes effect [POLITICO]. U.S. Special Envoy Thomas Barrack publicly stated in May 2025 that Trump would "soon announce" Syria's removal from the SST list, though no formal action had been taken as of this writing. The administration is reviewing but has not yet rescinded Syria's status as a State Sponsor of Terrorism.

The text messages reported by POLITICO, purportedly stating that the SST designation would be removed "by end of summer" and that Trump directed Rubio to act after al-Sharaa personally raised the matter, were not confirmed by either the State Department or the White House [POLITICO]. Critics of expedited removal have raised concerns about sequencing. Jonathan Schanzer, executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a former terrorism finance analyst at Treasury during the George W. Bush administration, told POLITICO that removal at this stage would be "premature" given questions about the new government's commitment to regional order [POLITICO]. If the president or his designees act to rescind Syria's SST designation, specific notification and certification requirements to Congress under law will apply. Victims of Syrian terrorism would also have six months from the time of delisting to file claims for damages incurred during the period of Syria's SST designation. Those litigation exposure considerations add procedural weight to a decision the administration has, to date, kept on the review track rather than completing.