US terror list removal 'shakes off dark stain' from Syria, al-Sharaa says

BREAKING: US removes Syria and HTS from its terror list, lifting economic restrictions in place since 1979, with President al-Sharaa saying it 'shakes off a dark stain'.

Syria is off the American terror list. After forty seven years.

Washington just removed both Syria and HTS from its designations, lifting economic restrictions that had been in place since 1979. Think about that timeline. Those sanctions are older than most of the people living under them.

President al-Sharaa, and here he is, called it shaking off a dark stain. A year and a half ago the man himself had an American bounty on his head, and now he's the one holding the press conference in Damascus about restrictions being lifted. That is one of the strangest arcs in modern diplomacy, and it just got its official stamp from the State Department.

What it means in practice is banks, trade, reconstruction money, all of it suddenly legal on paper. Whether the capital actually shows up is another story. But a door that was welded shut since 1979 is now open, and everyone in the region noticed.

This is Sara White, reporting for HIT.