State Sponsors of Terrorism: Criteria, Sanctions, and Lawsuits

The United States currently designates four countries as State Sponsors of Terrorism: Cuba, Iran, North Korea, and Syria.¹ The label is issued by the Secretary of State and applies to any government the Secretary determines has repeatedly supported acts of international terrorism. Once a country is on the list, U.S. law shuts off foreign aid, bans arms sales, freezes financial dealings, and opens the country to lawsuits in U.S. courts from Americans harmed by its conduct.

The Four Designated Countries

Syria — designated December 29, 1979
Iran — designated January 19, 1984
North Korea — designated November 20, 2017
Cuba — designated January 12, 2021

Syria has carried the designation the longest, since the list was created in 1979.¹ Iran’s designation dates to 1984 and reflects its support for armed proxy groups across the Middle East. North Korea and Cuba have both been on and off the list. North Korea was first designated in 1988, removed in 2008, and re-designated in 2017. Cuba was designated in 1982, removed in 2015, and re-designated in 2021.

Recent Movement on Syria and Cuba

Syria’s status is under active review. After the fall of the Assad government in late 2024, the President signed an executive order in July 2025 revoking most Syria-specific sanctions and directing the Secretary of State to review the country’s designation.² The review is ongoing. The formal designation itself has not yet been rescinded through the statutory process.

Cuba briefly appeared headed off the list in January 2025. On January 14, President Biden certified a rescission to Congress as part of a Vatican-brokered prisoner release. Six days later, on January 20, President Trump reversed that certification on taking office. Cuba remains designated.

What It Takes to Be Designated

The Secretary of State acts under three statutes: Section 1754(c) of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019, Section 40 of the Arms Export Control Act, and Section 620A of the Foreign Assistance Act.¹ All three use the same standard: the Secretary must find that the country’s government has “repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism.”³ “Repeatedly” carries weight. A single incident does not meet the bar; the law targets a pattern of governmental conduct.

Federal law defines international terrorism as premeditated, politically motivated violence against noncombatant targets carried out by subnational groups or clandestine agents, involving the citizens or territory of more than one country.⁴ The designation targets government-level support for that conduct, whether through funding, safe harbor, training, or weapons.

What the Designation Triggers

Foreign Aid Cut Off

The United States is barred from providing almost all forms of foreign assistance to a designated government. That includes economic support funds, development aid, Food for Peace, Peace Corps activities, and Export-Import Bank financing.³ The U.S. must also vote against loans or financial assistance from the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and other international financial institutions. The President can waive the aid ban for national security or humanitarian reasons, but only after 15 days of advance consultation with the relevant congressional committees and a written report. Military assistance and Export-Import Bank financing can never be waived on humanitarian grounds alone.

Arms and Dual-Use Exports Blocked

The Arms Export Control Act prohibits the export or sale of U.S. defense articles and services to a designated country.⁵ Anything on the U.S. Munitions List, including weapons, military technology, and training, is off the table. The Department of Commerce separately controls dual-use goods, meaning items with both civilian and potential military applications. Exports of dual-use items that could meaningfully improve the country’s military capability or terrorism infrastructure require advance notice to Congress before the sale can go through.¹

Financial Sanctions

The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control enforces financial sanctions against designated countries. Those sanctions can block all property and interests in property of the foreign government that sit within the United States or are controlled by a U.S. person.⁶ Blocked property cannot be transferred, withdrawn, or dealt with in any way. U.S. persons are generally prohibited from trading or transacting with the designated country unless a specific license or statutory exemption applies. Because the dollar dominates cross-border commerce, the effect reaches well beyond U.S. banks: much of the global financial system routes around designated countries to avoid touching U.S. jurisdiction.

Penalties for Violating Sanctions

Violations are punished under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Civil penalties can reach $377,700 per violation or twice the value of the underlying transaction, whichever is greater, and are adjusted for inflation. Willful violations are federal crimes carrying up to $1,000,000 in fines and up to 20 years in prison.⁷ The penalties reach attempts and conspiracies, and U.S. parent companies can be held civilly liable for violations by foreign subsidiaries they own or control, even for transactions that took place entirely overseas.

Secondary Sanctions on Foreign Parties

Non-U.S. persons who engage in prohibited transactions with entities blocked under Executive Order 13224 can be sanctioned by OFAC themselves.⁸ Foreign banks face a specific and sharp risk: knowingly processing significant transactions for a blocked person can cost them access to U.S. correspondent banking, which effectively shuts them out of dollar commerce. Statutes like the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act add mandatory asset blocking and visa denial for anyone who materially contributes to the transfer of certain heavy weapons to Iran.⁹

Suing a Designated Country

Foreign governments normally cannot be sued in U.S. courts. The terrorism exception to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act removes that immunity for designated countries.¹⁰ U.S. nationals, members of the armed forces, U.S. government employees, and their legal representatives can sue a designated country for money damages for personal injury or death caused by torture, extrajudicial killing, aircraft sabotage, hostage taking, or the provision of material support for those acts. The country must have been designated when the act occurred, or as a result of the act, and must still be designated when the suit is filed or have been designated within the prior six months.

Winning a judgment is not the same as collecting on one. Congress created the United States Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Fund to distribute forfeited assets and penalties to eligible claimants. To qualify, you must be a U.S. person holding a final judgment for compensatory damages against a foreign state that was designated when the underlying acts occurred.¹¹ A separate category covers the Americans held at the U.S. embassy in Tehran between November 4, 1979 and January 20, 1981, who are eligible for $10,000 per day of captivity, with a $600,000 lump sum for spouses and children.

Travel and Immigration Effects

The designation reaches ordinary travelers. Under the Visa Waiver Program Improvement and Terrorist Travel Prevention Act of 2015, nationals of Visa Waiver Program countries who have traveled to or been present in North Korea, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Libya, Somalia, or Yemen at any time on or after March 1, 2011 cannot enter the United States on ESTA. They have to apply for a full visa.¹² Dual nationals of a VWP country and Iraq, Syria, Iran, North Korea, or Sudan are ineligible for ESTA regardless of which passport they use. Cuba’s redesignation added a parallel restriction: anyone who visited Cuba on or after January 12, 2021, and dual nationals of Cuba and a VWP country, cannot use ESTA. Losing ESTA does not bar entry to the United States; it means going through a consulate for a visa.

Nationals of designated countries themselves face heavier scrutiny. Federal immigration law makes any noncitizen inadmissible if there are reasonable grounds to believe they intend to engage in terrorist activity in the United States.¹³ Visa denials on terrorism or security grounds, unlike most others, do not have to explain the reason.

Humanitarian and Medical Exceptions

The sanctions are broad but not total. OFAC issues general licenses that authorize categories of transactions without individual applications. The most significant carve-outs are for humanitarian purposes. Nongovernmental organizations can carry out non-commercial activities that directly benefit civilian populations, including distributing food, nutritional supplies, and medicine.¹⁴ Individuals whose property is blocked can still receive agricultural commodities, medicine, and medical devices for personal, non-commercial use in quantities consistent with personal use. Agricultural commodities cover food for humans or animals, seeds for food crops, and fertilizers; medicine and medical devices follow the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act definitions. In practice, the compliance burden often deters even authorized humanitarian trade.

How a Country Comes Off the List

Removal, called rescission, follows a statutory process with two possible routes.³

Under the first route, the President submits a report to Congress certifying that there has been a fundamental change in the country’s leadership and policies, that the government is not supporting terrorism, and that it has given assurances against future support. This route has no minimum waiting period beyond the requirement that the report come before the rescission takes effect.

The second route does not require a change in leadership. The President must certify that the government has not supported international terrorism during the preceding six months and has provided assurances against future support. Under this route the report has to reach Congress at least 45 days before the rescission takes effect, giving Congress a review window.¹⁵ Cuba’s 2015 removal used this second route.

Rescission is rare. Cuba has been added and removed twice. North Korea was removed in 2008 and re-designated in 2017. The January 2025 Cuba episode, where a presidential certification was reversed within days by a new administration, showed how vulnerable the process is to political change. The ongoing Syria review will test whether the formal process can move as quickly as conditions on the ground.

1
United States Department of State. State Sponsors of Terrorism
2
Federal Register. Providing for the Revocation of Syria Sanctions
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 22 USC 2371 – Prohibition on Assistance to Governments Supporting International Terrorism
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 22 USC 2656f
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 22 USC 2778 – Control of Arms Exports and Imports
6
Office of Foreign Assets Control. Basic Information on OFAC and Sanctions
7
eCFR. 31 CFR 560.701 – Penalties
8
Office of Foreign Assets Control. Counter Terrorism Sanctions
9
GovInfo. Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act
10
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 1605A – Terrorism Exception to the Jurisdictional Immunity of a Foreign State
11
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 34 USC 20144 – Justice for United States Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism
12
U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Visa Waiver Program Improvement and Terrorist Travel Prevention Act Frequently Asked Questions
13
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1182 – Inadmissible Aliens
14
eCFR. Part 594 – Global Terrorism Sanctions Regulations
15
Federal Register. Cuba – Implementing Rescission of State Sponsor of Terrorism Designation