Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa marked Syria’s removal from the US list of state sponsors of terrorism by carrying out the country's first Visa card transaction at a coffee shop in Damascus.
A video posted by the Syrian Foreign Ministry shows al-Sharaa in the Old City of Damascus, accompanied by Syrian Central Bank Governor Mohammed Safwat Raslan, using a Visa card to pay for coffee.
“Will that be cash or credit, Mr. President?" the Foreign Ministry wrote in the post accompanying the video.
"For more than fifteen years, this simple transaction was impossible," the post noted.
“Today, in the oldest continuously inhabited capital in the world, Syria's return to the global financial system became a fact," it added.
The transaction came after the United States formally removed Syria from its list of state sponsors of terrorism, in a major change in Washington’s policy toward al-Sharaa’s government.
The decision was announced Monday by the Trump administration and is expected to provide Syria with significant sanctions relief and make it easier for Damascus to reconnect with the international financial system.
The US is also removing al-Sharaa’s organization, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), from the Specially Designated Global Terrorist list.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the decision reflects “positive actions and further commitments" by al-Sharaa’s government to distance Syria from international terrorism.
Syria had been on the State Sponsor of Terrorism list since 1979. Cuba, Iran and North Korea remain designated as state sponsors of terrorism.
“Rescinding Syria’s designation as an SST and HTS’ designation as an SDGT eliminates the final major barriers for private sector investment in Syria and promotes Syria’s economic recovery and reintegration into the global economy," Rubio said.
President Donald Trump marked the decision on Truth Social by posting a photograph of al-Sharaa and Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani holding the executive order signed by Trump directing sanctions relief for Syria.
Tom Barrack, the US ambassador to Turkey and special envoy to Syria, described the decision as the beginning of a new chapter in relations between Washington and Damascus.
“For too long, this designation was another wall separating the Syrian people from the investment, enterprise, and opportunity necessary to rebuild their nation. Today, another wall comes down," Barrack wrote.
“Capital can replace conflict, enterprise can replace isolation, and commerce can continue to triumph over chaos," he added.
The move follows Trump’s executive order of June 30 last year ending longstanding US sanctions on the Syrian government while retaining measures against the ousted regime of Bashar Al-Assad and other actors deemed destabilizing.
The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control subsequently revoked US sanctions regulations targeting the Syrian government in August of that year.
Trump first announced his intention to lift sanctions during a May 2025 visit to Riyadh, where he met with al-Sharaa and described the Syrian President as a “tough guy" and a “fighter" with a “very strong past."