The United States moved to take Syria off its list of state sponsors of terrorism, a label Damascus has carried since 1979 and the last big legal barrier to its recovery. The turn came out of a meeting in Ankara.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday that Trump had formally notified Congress of his intent to rescind the designation, which lifts after a 45-day notice period. "This is yet another historic step by President Trump to give the Syrian people a chance at greatness," Rubio said, adding that the move would "unlock international trade and investment" and give Syria "a chance to rebuild."
The decision followed a meeting hours earlier between Trump and Syria's president, Ahmad al-Sharaa, on the sidelines of the NATO summit that Türkiye was hosting. Asked whether he would take Syria off the list, Trump said, "I think I will, why wouldn't I? He's done a great job."
Sharaa was in Ankara as a guest of the summit, and he spread the credit. Standing beside Trump, he said Syria's progress in "unifying the country" over the past year and a half owed to the Syrian people, to Trump's "historic decision" to lift sanctions, and to "the help of all our friends in the region, from Türkiye and the Gulf." Syria's Foreign Ministry welcomed the delisting as "an important development" built on "dialogue, mutual respect and shared interests," saying it would open the way to reconstruction and investment.
Türkiye's hand
The path ran through Ankara in more than location. Sharaa's day in the Turkish capital included a closed-door meeting with President Erdoğan at the presidential complex, and a separate sit-down with a US congressional delegation and Washington's envoy for Syria and Iraq, Tom Barrack, alongside Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani. Türkiye has pressed since the fall of Bashar al-Assad for Syria's reintegration and a role in rebuilding it, arguing that sanctions relief is the precondition for everything else.
The terrorism designation had outlived the government it was meant to punish. Washington listed Syria in 1979, and though it lifted most sanctions after Assad fell, the state-sponsor label stayed on, widely seen as the main obstacle left to trade, banking and reconstruction money. Rubio framed its removal as opening "a new chapter," and said a "stable, unified Syria at peace with itself and its neighbors" served the whole region.
What comes next is the 45-day clock, and the question of whether investment follows the paperwork. For Ankara, which shares a long border with Syria and still hosts millions of Syrians who fled the war, the answer shapes both its southern frontier and the prospect of returns.
Update, 9 July 2026: The regional endorsements followed quickly. Saudi Arabia's Foreign Ministry welcomed the US move and backed "all positive steps" by the Syrian government toward stability and rebuilding, the same Türkiye-and-Gulf support Sharaa had credited in Ankara.