US, UK mull removing HTS militants in Syria from terror list

The United States and Britain are mulling removing the terrorist designation of Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) after the former offshoot of al-Qaeda overthrew the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

“US officials are in contact with all the groups involved in fighting in Syria, including the main group that ousted Assad, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which was once affiliated with al-Qaeda and remains on a US terrorist list,” The Washington Post reported on Sunday.

The newspaper cited an American official as saying that the US administration has not ruled out removing HTS from the terror list to enable deeper US contact and cooperation with the group.

“We have to be smart … and also very mindful and pragmatic about the realities on the ground,” the official said.

Another US official also said the White House is in the process of conducting a “real-time assessment” about HTS.

That’s while Vice President-elect J.D. Vance on Sunday expressed concern about the nature of HTS militants, saying many of them "are a literal offshoot of ISIS,” using an alternative acronym for Daesh.

“One can hope they've moderated. Time will tell," he added.

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On Sunday, armed groups, led by HTS militants, captured the Syrian capital, which led to the fall of Assad’s government.

The fall of the Assad government "fulfills a longtime US foreign policy goal,” The Post noted.

The UK is also considering removing HTS from a list of banned terrorist groups to which it was added in 2017 as an alias of al-Qaeda.

When asked by BBC if a process to review HTS's designation as a terror group was underway, Cabinet Office Minister Pat McFadden said on Monday, "Yes, obviously that's got to be considered. They've been proscribed for quite a long time now."

However, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said it was still "far too early" to consider a change of policy.

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