3. July 2022

Abu Muhammad al-Jawlani, leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, speaks in a recorded interview released in Jan. 2019. Photo credit: Screenshot by Cole Bunzel via Twitter.

Editor’s Note: Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) is a strange beast: It has disavowed al-Qaeda, but it remains an extremist jihadist organization with a nasty governance record. The Washington Institute’s Aaron Zelin explores the challenges related to taking HTS off the State Department’s list of foreign terrorist organizations, identifying why institutional inertia and other factors make this difficult should the group eventually no longer meet the criteria of a terrorist organization.

Daniel Byman

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Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) set an unconventional precedent last year when it became the first jihadi group to seriously call for the United States to delist the group as a foreign terrorist organization. In an interview with Martin Smith, of PBS’s Frontline, in February 2021, HTS leader Abu Muhammad al-Jawlani objected to the organization’s designation, calling it “an unfair categorization.” He continued:

It’s a political label that carries no truth or credibility, because through our 10-year journey in this revolution,

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