Trump Administration Lifts Sanctions on Al Qaeda-Linked Syrian Commanders Days Before 9/11's 25th Anniversary

Since Ahmad al-Sharaa's Hayat Tahrir al-Sham toppled Bashar al-Assad's government in December 2024, Washington has steadily normalized ties with the men who built Syria's Al Qaeda branch. In August, the Trump administration removed several of them from the US list of specially designated terrorists, according to reporting by Max Blumenthal for The GrayZone.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on August 24, 2026 that the administration was removing Syria's government from the State Sponsor of Terrorism list entirely. "These actions represent another historic step by President Trump to give the Syrian people a path to prosperity," Rubio said.

Who Got Delisted

The most notable name is Abdullah Muhaysini, a Salafi-jihadi cleric from Saudi Arabia. According to The GrayZone, Muhaysini recruited foreign youth, including teenagers, to carry out suicide bombings in Syria and appeared on video in 2015 presiding over the mass execution of 56 captive Syrian army soldiers at the Abu-Dhuhur air base in Idlib province. In the video cited by The GrayZone, Pure Wilayah, and Global Research, Muhaysini justified the killings by declaring the captured soldiers had "apostatized" by serving Syria's Alawite-led government. Through connections with wealthy Salafis in the Gulf states, Muhaysini also organized a fundraising effort that raised roughly $5 million for the armed opposition's 2015 push to take Idlib governorate from the Syrian army.

Also removed from the sanctions list: Abu Sulayman al-Muhajir, described as a top Al Qaeda recruiter who fled Australia for Syria; Shafi Sultan Mohammed al-Ajmi, a Kuwaiti financier of Al-Nusra, the Syrian branch of Al Qaeda; and Abdul Samrez Jashari, an Albanian foreign fighter who now holds a senior role in Syria's military under al-Sharaa's government.

Al-Sharaa himself, formerly known as Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, co-founded ISIS and later founded Jabhat al-Nusra before rebranding it as HTS. He toppled Assad in December 2024 and was hosted by Trump in the Oval Office in November 2025.

The Administration's Stated Case

No source in this reporting shows the White House offering a detailed public defense of delisting individual figures like Muhaysini. Rubio's August 24 statement framed the broader move as economic: lifting the State Sponsor of Terrorism designation on Syria's government to allow reconstruction and investment after the civil war devastated the country's economy.

Several of these men, including Jashari, now hold official positions inside the same Syrian government the US recognizes and works with. Keeping individual sanctions in place on sitting military officials of a government Washington has chosen to engage could complicate basic diplomatic and economic functions the administration says it wants to enable. That is a coherent policy rationale, even if it is not one any source shows the administration stating explicitly about Muhaysini by name.

What none of the sources show is any acknowledgment from the State Department addressing Muhaysini's specific record, the 2015 massacre video, or his history recruiting minors as suicide bombers. Rubio's public statement deals with Syria's government status, not with why a cleric linked to a documented mass execution was individually removed from a terrorist list.

Where the Coverage Diverges

The underlying reporting here traces to a single original piece by Max Blumenthal for The GrayZone. Global Research, Scheer Post, ZeroHedge, and an additional outlet all republished it nearly verbatim, which means five of the seven accounts reviewed here are one report, not five independent confirmations.

Two other outlets built commentary on top of that same GrayZone reporting. Pure Wilayah, in a piece titled "The Mask Slips," characterized the delistings as preparing these militants "for a new wave of covert imperialist operations" and described the move as part of "Zionist-American plots in the Levant." News Pravda similarly framed the move as proof Washington doesn't take 9/11's legacy seriously. Neither outlet cites any document, official, or named source establishing intent to use these figures for future operations. Those are unproven allegations, not established facts, and no source in this record shows any US official confirming such a plan.

What's Unresolved

No source shows Congress has scheduled hearings, introduced legislation, or issued a formal statement on the delistings. No investigation or inspector general review has been announced. The State Department has not, per any source reviewed, addressed Muhaysini's specific record on the public record beyond Rubio's general statement about Syria's path forward. Whether any lawmaker moves to force that accounting before the 9/11 anniversary passes remains an open question.