The U.S. State Department has designated Syria's al-Nusrah Front leader Muhammad al-Jawlani as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist.
As a result of the designation, all property subject to U.S. jurisdiction in which al-Jawlani has any interest is blocked and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with him or for his benefit.
Al-Jawlani is considered the leader of the Terrorist Organization al-Nusrah Front, already blacklisted by the U.S. He has stated in videos that his ultimate goal is the overthrow of the Syrian regime and the institution of Islamist shari'a laws throughout the country.
Al-Jawlani was specifically tasked by al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) to carry out these objectives. Under his leadership, al-Nusrah Front has carried out multiple suicide attacks throughout Syria, which killed civilians. These attacks were primarily in Damascus.
Although al-Nusrah Front was formed by AQI in late 2011 as a front for AQI's activities in Syria, recently al-Jawlani publicly pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda's leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.
The violent, sectarian vision of al-Nusrah is at odds with the aspirations of the Syrian people, the State Department said in a press release on Thursday.
Most of the Syrian people, including an overwhelming majority of the Opposition, seek a free, democratic, and inclusive Syria and have made clear their desire for a government that respects and advances national unity, dignity, human rights, and equal protection under the law - regardless of faith, ethnicity, or gender.
Extremism and terrorist ideology have no place in a post-Assad Syria, the State Department noted, and called on all responsible Syrians to speak out against al-Qaeda and other extremist elements.
It accused the Assad regime of having created the circumstances that attract the violent extremists, who seek to exploit civil strife for their own purposes, by opting for the use of force against its own people.
The sooner the political transition to a post-Assad Syria begins, the better it will be for the Syrian people and the region, it added.
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