“The rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which spearheaded the lightning offensive against the capital, is an Islamist movement that has controlled Syria's northwestern areas for several years… Hans-Jakob Schindler, director of the international research institute Counter Extremism Project (CEP), believes that there is no reason to remove the blacklist. "If you have to ask permission from al-Qaeda's leadership before breaking ties with al-Qaeda, the sincerity of the ideological reorientation is questionable," he told AFP. – There is absolutely no doubt that they should still be listed as a terrorist group, he claims.”