The fact that Syria's head of state got his start working for ISIS, and was a founding member of Syrian al-Qaeda, continues to produce embarrassing headlines. 

One full year after former president Bashar al-Assad was overthrown and fled to Moscow, Canada has very belatedly removed President Ahmed al-Sharaa's militia group Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham from its list of state sponsors of terrorism, according to a Friday statement from the country’s Foreign Ministry. As part of the new action, Syria has also been removed from its list of state sponsors of terrorism (a list the country had been on over many years of the Assad government).

Sharaa, formerly known as Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, founded and for years headed up the terror group HTS in Idlib province. HTS is the group that took control of Damascus after the collapse of the Syrian army in December 2024.

"Following extensive review, the Government of Canada has removed Syria from Canada's List of Foreign State Supporters of Terrorism under the State Immunity Act, as well as removed Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) from the List of Terrorist Entities under the Canadian Criminal Code," the ministry said.

The US was the first to act, having lifted a $10 million bounty on Sharaa within the months after he seized power, followed by a full US delisting.

The Canadian foreign ministry further said that the decision was "not taken lightly." It stated, "These measures are in line with recent decisions taken by our allies, including the United Kingdom and the United States, and follow the efforts by the Syrian transitional government to advance Syria's stability, build an inclusive and secure future for its citizens, and work alongside global partners to reinforce regional stability and counter terrorism."

So Canada seems to be admitting that HTS is indeed linked to al-Qaeda, and was properly designated in years past as a terror group, but that now it is merely going along with its allies the UK and US which removed the legal designation earlier.

The ministry still sought to stress that Canada "remains committed … to counter global security threats, such as those posed by Al-Qaeda" and ISIS (Daesh).

President Sharaa and his HTS fighters - many which now fill up top government positions - have lately been trying to make a show of 'counter ISIS missions'. However, it is Alawite, Christian, and Druze communities which have suffered repeat attacks by Sharaa's Islamist forces in recent months. 

Western countries have moved to normalize HTS, but nothing fundamentally has changed in their hardline Islamist ideology...

Various reports have also noted that in some cases HTS members sport ISIS patches, and do little to try and hide it. Still, mainstream outlets like CNN haven't covered this much, and have by and large 'moved on' from coverage of Syria, now with Assad out of the way - as the Western powers had long sought in fueling the proxy war for regime change.