Following the recent regime change in Syria the Canadian government is reviewing sanctions against militant groups involved in driving out Bashar al-Assad.
Key considerations include potentially lifting sanctions imposed in 2011 and reassessing the designation of the rebel group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham as a terrorist organization.
Currently, HTS is a Listed Terrorist Entity as defined by Public Safety Canada.
Public Safety Canada says the group is responsible for nearly 600 attacks including “ambushes, kidnappings, assassinations, Improvised Explosive Device attacks and suicide bombings” throughout Syria and the Levant.
“In March 2017, 2 HTS suicide bombers attacked Damascus, killing at least 74 people, including 8 children. More recently, on December 21, 2019, HTS claimed killing 30 Syrian regime troops in a suicide bombing in Raffa, a town in the southeast of Idlib governorate,” writes Public Safety Canada.
HTS is a Sunni-Islamist terror group created to wage jihad and establish an Islamist state in the former territories controlled by the Assad regime. It was one of the main groups involved in this year’s capture of Damascus and is now in control of most of Syria.
Canadian officials say the recognition of the new Syrian government will be contingent upon the establishment of democratic institutions and a commitment to building a modern state that respects the rights of all Syrians.
The review is said to include examining the status of HTS. The group has tried to distance its past ties to al-Qaeda, and its leader, Ahmed Al-Sharaa, has made overtures to Western government claiming that Syria will go down a more pluralistic path.
HTS evolved from al-Qaeda, existing as Al-Qaeda in Iraq between 2004 and 2006. It has since cracked down on al-Qaeda sympathies within its ranks and has engaged in open hostilities with ISIS.
