UK could consider rescinding terrorist status of Syria's HTS, says minister

PHOTO CAPTION: A rebel fighter stands atop a military vehicle as he carries a Hayat Tahrir al-Sham flag in Saraqeb town in northwestern Idlib province, Syria December 1, 2024. REUTERS/Mahmoud Hassano

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain could rethink its proscription of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) as a banned organisation, after the group spearheaded the Syrian rebel alliance that helped oust President Bashar al-Assad, British senior minister Pat McFadden said on Monday.

"We will consider that. And I think it will partly depend on what happens in terms of how that group behaves now," McFadden told Sky News, when asked if the British government would look at the proscription of HTS again.

HTS, a former al-Qaeda affiliate, is a proscribed organisation in the UK, meaning that Britain, like other Western nations including the U.S., designates it as a terrorist group, making it illegal to support or join it.

"I think it should be a relatively swift decision, so it's something that will have to be considered quite quickly, given the speed of the situation on the ground," he told BBC Radio.

McFadden, a senior member of Prime Minister Keir Starmer's cabinet of ministers, said no decisions on HTS had been taken over the weekend, after rebels led by the group seized the Syrian capital Damascus and al-Assad fled to Russia.

International governments including Britain's have welcomed the end of the Assad's autocratic government, which marks one of the biggest turning points for the Middle East in generations.



(Reporting by Sarah Young, writing by Sachin Ravikumar; Editing by Kate Holton)