The Islamic State (IS) has accused Syria’s transitional president, Ahmad al-Sharaa, of offering “payments” and political concessions to the United States in exchange for Washington’s decision to delist him and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS)—the core of Syria’s current civil and military administration—from its terrorism list.

In the editorial of its weekly newspaper Al-Nabaa, published on Thursday, July 11, IS claimed that “al-Julani” (referring to al-Sharaa by his former nom de guerre) served American and “Jewish” interests—a veiled reference to Israel—through actions that secured his “exoneration” from terrorism designations.

According to the editorial, al-Sharaa’s removal from the list followed his first meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump, during which he allegedly granted the U.S. access to Syria’s resources “above and below the ground,” and returned the remains and prisoners of American nationals.

The article also claimed that al-Sharaa facilitated the recovery of Israeli soldiers’ remains, citing Israel’s retrieval of the body of an Israeli soldier killed in the 1982 Battle of Sultan Yacoub in Lebanon, which was later returned from Syrian territory.

IS further accused al-Sharaa of handing over the coordinates of Syria’s chemical weapons stockpiles to ensure they did not fall into the hands of groups it deems “worthy,” and of waging war against IS both inside Syria and abroad.

The group portrayed the U.S. decision to delist the new Syrian administration as a parallel move to Russia’s recognition of the Taliban government in Afghanistan, which has held power since 2021.

It claimed that the U.S. is “embracing” al-Sharaa’s government as a means to bring it into the Western camp, just as Russia has brought the Taliban into its Eastern bloc.

IS had previously criticized al-Sharaa in a Nabaa editorial published in mid-May, following his high-profile meeting with President Trump in Riyadh.

At that time, the group argued that the meeting made it “clear” that the dispute between al-Sharaa and IS was theological rather than political or partisan.

It also accused the Syrian president of abandoning the “religion of Abraham” (a reference to Islam) in favor of the “Abraham Accords,” referring to the normalization agreements between several Arab states and Israel.

al-Sharaa met with President Trump on May 14 in what was described as a “historic” meeting, shortly after the U.S. lifted long-standing sanctions on Syria.

The event marked a dramatic shift in U.S.-Syrian relations, particularly as the Damascus-based authority had been listed as a terrorist entity by Washington for years.

On July 8, the U.S. formally removed Jabhat al-Nusra—the former name of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham—from its terrorism list.