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Currently, it is only about Great Britain, but some leaders of Western countries also declare their readiness to cooperate with the new Syrian government.
According to Western intelligence estimates, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the leading group that overthrew the Assad regime in Syria, is not a direct terrorist threat to Great Britain, writes The Guardian.
The decision could mean that the UK, along with the US and the EU, will soon remove HTS as a terrorist organization. In the British case, this would help to justify direct contacts with the new leaders of Syria.
Intelligence sources believe that HTS' main focus is currently on domestic affairs, consolidating power and rebuilding the country after 13 years of civil war. There is no indication that the organization seeks to promote global jihadism or a resurgence of the Islamic State, the officials said.
Ministers and politicians have already hinted at a possible change of position. While Keir Starmer said on Monday it was too early to make a decision on HTS, Cabinet Secretary Pat McFadden said any change would be a "relatively quick decision".
The Ministry of Interior said that "the situation on the ground in Syria is very volatile" and stressed that "the priority must be the safety of Syrian civilians and ensuring a political solution to the unfolding events." The designation of organizations as terrorists is constantly reviewed and revised, the spokesman said.
The Sunni rebel group HTS was an offshoot of al-Qaeda until 2016, which led to its designation as a terrorist organization, while it tried to tone down its Islamist policies during its time in Idlib in northwestern Syria.
HTS leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, who has reverted to using his real name instead of his military name Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, currently speaking about the rule of law and the protection of minorities in a country with a complex ethnic balance.
In an interview with CNN last week, he said that they "co-existed in this region for hundreds of years" and "no one has the right to eliminate them." The leader of HTS added that currently his position has changed significantly, because over the years he has gone through several stages of transformation.
"A twenty-year-old person will have a different personality than a thirty- or forty-year-old person and, of course, a fifty-year-old person. This is human nature," he told reporters.
On Sunday, Joe Biden said that while "some of the rebel groups that took down Assad have their own sordid history of terrorism," there has been a shift in tone since the dictator's fall.
"They are saying the right things now, but as they take on more responsibility, we will judge not just their words, but their actions," the US president added.
Influential British figures are divided on whether to change the status of HTS. Lord Ricketts, a former UK national security adviser, believes the UK should work with G7 partners to "do a very quick due diligence and lift restrictions together".
The expert added that "the window of opportunity to influence the various rebel groups to work together on inclusive governance may well be short" and that delay would cause more risks by contributing to instability and separatism in the country.
Emily Thornberry, Labour's head of the foreign affairs select committee, warned against rushing to a decision. "The last thing the Syrian people want is to have one tyrant with an Islamic flag in place of another," she said.
"For more than 10 years, the UN Special Envoy to Syria has been negotiating in Geneva with Syrians and various parties, trying to draft what a proper Syrian constitution and country's laws would look like.
British government regulations and legislation make it a crime to collaborate with, or even meet with, an organization designated as a terrorist organization. It is also illegal under UK law to support a banned terrorist organisation.
A government official commented, however, that counter-terrorism legislation does not prevent the government from "engaging with HTS in the future" and that "there is no crime in meeting with a proscribed organisation". Interactions, he said, could include meetings to "facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid."
The roar from the fall of the statues of Hafez Assad reverberated with a loud echo in Tehran, Moscow and Washington. What changes will the rapid development of events in Syria cause for the geopolitical situation?
