ANKARA — President Donald Trump has signaled his intention to remove Syria from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism following a bilateral meeting with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa on the margins of the NATO summit in Ankara.
Trump announced the lifting of sanctions against Damascus and suggested possible U.S.-Syrian cooperation regarding Hezbollah, shortly after al-Sharaa arrived in the Turkish capital for the second day of NATO's 36th summit. Washington previously repealed the Caesar Act and delisted Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham as a foreign terrorist organization last year.
Al-Sharaa described Syria's unification as a major step forward, crediting U.S. sanctions relief alongside Turkish and Gulf state support. The United States has classified Syria as a state sponsor of terrorism since December 1979.