International Traffic in Arms Regulations: Syria Country Policy Revision

Syria is off the State Department’s “automatic no” list for U.S. defense exports. A final rule that took effect October 1, 2026, removes Syria from the countries covered by a policy of denial in the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, or ITAR.

Why now? The rule says the Secretary of State approved a new defense trade policy for Syria on August 19, 2026. Before the change could be written into the rules, several legal steps had to be met — including rescinding the terrorism-support determination and waiving or removing restrictions under other laws such as the Syria Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act.

What actually changes: the reference to Syria comes out of ITAR section 126.1, “Prohibited exports, imports and sales to or from certain countries.” License requests and other approvals involving Syria will now be judged one by one instead of being denied by default.

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Who should read it: exporters, freight forwarders and trade-compliance staff who handle defense articles or defense services. Case-by-case still means a license is required. This rule does not approve any specific sale.

Federal Register filing: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/10/01/2026-20082/international-traffic-in-arms-regulations-syria-country-policy-revision

This is a Notice Nearby publisher-desk Federal brief — a short in-house summary of a public federal filing. It is not official agency minutes, not a newspaper story, and not Legal Publication. It does not satisfy a statutory notice requirement.