US removes Syria from terrorism sponsor list, lifting major investment obstacle
The United States has officially removed Syria from its list of state sponsors of terrorism, a move that Damascus says removes the last major barrier to foreign investment. The delisting, effective after a 45-day congressional review, follows months of negotiations and is part of Washington's deepening ties with Syria's new government. It also lifts the designation of the Nusrah Front as a terrorist group, leaving Cuba, Iran, and North Korea as the only remaining state sponsors. The decision is expected to boost Syria's rebuilding efforts, with companies like Mastercard and Bank of America already exploring opportunities.
There is no longer any obstacle to investment, doing business and rebuilding economic life in Syria.
- roenxi
> Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa[g] ... has served as the president of Syria since 2025.
> Born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to a Syrian Sunni Muslim family from the Golan Heights, he grew up in Syria's capital, Damascus. Al-Sharaa joined al-Qaeda in Iraq shortly before the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq and fought for two years in the Iraqi insurgency. From 2005 to 2011, he was captured and imprisoned by American and Iraqi forces. His release coincided with the onset of the Syrian revolution against the Ba'athist regime of Bashar al-Assad. In 2012, with the support of al-Qaeda's central command, al-Sharaa founded Jabhat al-Nusra, also known as al-Nusra Front, to depose the Assad regime.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_al-Sharaa#Split_from_al-...
You have to jog to keep up with politics in the Middle East.
- wutangson1
Great news! I'm sure when the students had an uprising (funded by US spy agencies) to overthrow Asad, this is exactly who they wanted- an Al Queda fundamentalist to rule over them! Another win for the West!
- imadj
Many essential tech services like ChatGPT, Gemini, Coursera, Udemy, Stripe and many others are still sadly unavailable to people in Syria even though sanctions have been lifted and the legal barrier no longer exists.
- fsuts
Hopefully the Syrian state officials are not corrupt and sign the best deals for the country, rather than siphoning off bribes for themselves and selling Syria to foreign companies who extract egregious profits.
- JohnTHaller
Y'all-Queda making deals with Al Queda would not have been on my bingo card a decade ago