Trudeau congratulates Syrian interim leader Ahmed al-Sharaa despite terrorist listing

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau lauded Syria’s interim president Thursday despite the fact Ahmed al-Sharaa leads a group Canada still designates as a terrorist organization.

Canada has listed Hayat Tahrir al-Sham as a terrorist organization since 2013. That group, often called HTS, toppled the regime of Bashar al-Assad last December, ending a brutal dictatorship that was supported by the Russian government.

“The prime minister offered congratulations on the success of ending the Assad regime, which inflicted decades of suffering on the Syrian people,” reads a Thursday readout from Trudeau’s office.

Al-Sharaa now leads Syria and has hinted at aiming for a multicultural society, despite pledging for years to install an Islamic theocracy.

The Prime Minister’s Office has not responded to an inquiry about whether Canada plans to remove HTS from the terror listing.

Al-Sharaa’s office posted on X in Arabic that Trudeau had stressed the need to lift economic sanctions on Syria, but Trudeau’s readout was less specific.

It says that the two discussed “the challenges of the current sanctions and efforts undertaken by the transitional government to put Syria on the path towards future success.”

Trudeau’s readout says the pair “agreed on the importance of an inclusive political process to ensure lasting peace and stability for all Syrians” and that Trudeau said this includes “protecting human rights, including women and minority communities.”

Al-Sharaa also spoke recently with the heads of government of Russia, France, Germany and regional countries.

Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly is in Paris this week for a conference on rebuilding Syria, alongside MP Omar Alghabra whom Trudeau named last week as a special envoy for Syria. That conference includes al-Sharaa’s officials.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 13, 2025.

Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press