United States Department of State, Bureau of Counterterrorism, 'State Sponsors of Terrorism', list page, checked 23 August 2026 and again 25 August 2026
Source ID
SRC-371
Citation
United States Department of State, Bureau of Counterterrorism, 'State Sponsors of Terrorism', list page, checked 23 August 2026 and again 25 August 2026
URL or path
https://www.state.gov/state-sponsors-of-terrorism/; research/SST_statedept_list.html; Federal Register queries at research/SST_fr_search.json, research/SST_fr_broad.json, research/SST_fr_syria_aug.json, research/SST_fr_state_aug.json; research/SST_statedept_list_23aug.html
Type
Official statement of the designating authority, with an official gazette search
Hierarchy tier
2
Accessed
2026-08-24
Snapshot
HTML archived 23 August 2026, 175,026 bytes; four Federal Register API responses archived the same day || RE-FETCHED 23 August 2026 for the Chapter 6 AQ-12 basis, HTTP 200, 175,075 bytes, saved to research/SST_statedept_list_23aug.html. THE TWO COPIES ARE NOT BYTE-IDENTICAL, 175,026 against 175,075, and Mi4 of the v26 diff review established that both reduce to the same 15,663 characters once script, style and tag markup are stripped, as does a third uncited copy at research/SST_statedept_list2.html of 175,025 bytes. Any statement that the copies read identically is true of the text and false of the bytes. THE FOURTH FEDERAL REGISTER RESPONSE, research/SST_fr_search.json, is now described in the Chapter 6 basis and was not described here: the query was 'Syria state sponsor of terrorism' from 1 July 2026 and it returned two Department of Homeland Security immigration rules of 17 and 20 July, neither a rescission notice.
Claims
SST-001; Syria's designation status as at 23 August 2026
Status
READ
Version history
The register keeps changing after the book is fixed in print. Each entry below was added to this row in the order shown.
CHECKED AT THE DESIGNATING AUTHORITY'S OWN PAGE, 23 AUGUST 2026, AND THE ANSWER IS THAT SYRIA IS STILL DESIGNATED. The Bureau of Counterterrorism's State Sponsors of Terrorism page states, verbatim: 'Currently there are four countries designated under these authorities: Cuba, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea), Iran, and Syria.' Its table gives Country and Designation Date: Cuba, January 12, 2021; Democratic People's Republic of Korea, November 20, 2017; Iran, January 19, 1984; SYRIA, DECEMBER 29, 1979. The page names the three designating authorities as section 1754(c) of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019, section 40 of the Arms Export Control Act and section 620A of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, and states the four categories of resulting sanctions as restrictions on United States foreign assistance, a ban on defence exports and sales, certain controls over exports of dual use items, and miscellaneous financial and other restrictions. THE FEDERAL REGISTER CARRIES NO RESCISSION NOTICE, ON THREE QUERY FORMS RUN THE SAME DAY AGAINST THE REGISTER'S OWN API, AND THE SCOPE OF THAT SEARCH IS STATED RATHER THAN LEFT IMPLIED. One, the term 'state sponsor of terrorism' across all agencies with publication date on or after 1 June 2026: zero documents. Two, the term 'Syrian Arab Republic' across all agencies on or after 1 August 2026: zero documents. Three, all State Department documents matching Syria on or after 1 August 2026: two documents, one a thirty-day information-collection notice of 11 August and one a nonproliferation measures notice of 4 August, neither touching the designation. NOT SEARCHED: the Federal Register before 1 June 2026, other agencies' own publications, and the Congressional Record for any joint resolution of disapproval. SO THE POSITION AS AT 23 AUGUST 2026 IS PRECISE AND IT IS THE BOOK'S SUBJECT IN MINIATURE. The certification was transmitted on 8 July 2026 and reported worldwide as removal. The 45-day period ran out on 22 August. FORTY-SIX DAYS AFTER THE ANNOUNCEMENT, THE DESIGNATING AUTHORITY'S OWN LIST STILL CARRIES SYRIA AT ITS 1979 DESIGNATION DATE, and no rescission notice is published. WHAT IS NOT ESTABLISHED: whether the page is updated promptly, whether rescission is effective on expiry without publication, and whether any instrument was signed and not yet published. A sentence in this book may say what the list says and on what date, and may not say that Syria remains designated as a matter of law without opening the statute. WHY IT MATTERS BEYOND THE FACT. The designation is one of the conditions the payment-system argument of Chapter 6 rests on, it bears on the correspondent banking position, and it sits beside the Financial Action Task Force grey-list point Chapter 8 makes about accreditation. Any chapter stating Syria's sanctions status carries an as-of date and this row's scope.
RE-FETCHED 24 AUGUST 2026 AND THE PAGE STILL NAMES SYRIA, HOURS AFTER THE SECRETARY AUTHORISED THE RESCISSION. Saved at research/CH6_SST_recheck/state_sst_20260824.html. The wording is unchanged from the 23 August check, verbatim: 'Currently there are four countries designated under these authorities: Cuba, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea), Iran, and Syria', with Syria at December 29, 1979. A Federal Register query of all 49 State Department documents published since 1 July 2026 returns no rescission notice. THIS ROW NO LONGER SUPPORTS A CLAIM THAT THE DESIGNATION STANDS. SRC-398 is the Secretary's own press statement of the same day authorising the formal rescission, and it is the higher authority: a list page is not an instrument. WHAT THIS ROW NOW EVIDENCES is that the designating authority's published list lagged its own Secretary by at least a day, which is a fact about the list and not about the designation. NO PROSE MAY CITE THIS PAGE AS EVIDENCE THAT SYRIA IS STILL DESIGNATED.
P-05, 3 September 2026, basis audits/reports/register_hygiene_P05_2026-09-03_basis.md. THIS ROW NOW CARRIES THE MERGED ENTRY FOR THE STATE DEPARTMENT LIST PAGE and the check dates are the point, so none is lost: SRC-176 was captured undated, this row was checked 23 August 2026, and SRC-400 was checked 25 August 2026. Both dated checks are now in the Citation. SRC-176 and SRC-400 stand as records and stop printing.