The administration of President Joe Biden has acknowledged contact with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the Syrian opposition group that led the current lightning offensive that toppled longtime chief Bashar al-Assad.
Saturday’s assertion, delivered by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, was the primary time the Biden administration has publicly confirmed talks with the group.
Such talks are delicate. HTS has been designated as a “overseas terrorist organisation” within the US since 2018, and the US largely avoids negotiations with such teams.
In a information convention from Aqaba, Jordan, Blinken positioned his discussions with HTS within the context of broader US objectives for the way forward for Syria.
“Sure, we have now been involved with HTS and with different events,” Blinken mentioned in response to a query from reporters.
He defined that he “impressed upon everybody” the necessity to discover US citizen and freelance journalist Austin Tice, who went lacking in Syria whereas reporting in 2012.
Blinken additionally indicated his workforce sought HTS help for a set of “ideas” that diplomats from the US, the United Nations, the European Union, Turkiye and eight Arab League international locations mentioned for a peaceable authorities transition course of.
“We communicated these,” Blinken mentioned.
In Could 2018, the US State Division, below then-President Donald Trump, added HTS to its listing of “overseas terrorist organisations” resulting from its affiliation with the al-Nusra Entrance, an al-Qaeda affiliate.
It accused HTS of being a “automobile” for the al-Nusra Entrance “to advance its place within the Syrian rebellion and to additional its personal objectives”.
The United Nations Safety Council additionally sanctioned HTS in 2014 for the same motive, freezing its monetary property overseas and inserting it below an arms embargo.
However Ahmed al-Sharaa, additionally known as Abu Mohammed al-Julani, the chief of HTS, has taken steps to distance his organisation from al-Qaeda.
In response to The Related Press, al-Sharaa launched a video in 2016 asserting his group’s independence. “This new organisation has no affiliation to any exterior entity,” he mentioned.
Nonetheless, it’s unlikely that US officers will conform to lifting sanctions on HTS any time quickly.
Chatting with the information company Reuters this week, Senator Chris Murphy indicated lifting sanctions on HTS was untimely. He nonetheless emphasised the necessity to preserve ties with the forces shaping Syria’s future.
“I don’t suppose the USA ought to lock ourselves out of a room that everybody else is in,” he informed Reuters. “I don’t suppose we ought to be shy about opening strains of communication.”
One other senator — Ben Cardin, who chairs the Senate International Relations Committee — informed a information convention he would likewise take a “wait and see” method.
“It’s too early to inform whether or not the incoming regime’s document will replicate a distinct means of doing enterprise,” Cardin mentioned.
The way forward for US involvement in Syria additionally stays unsure. The nation has roughly 900 troops within the nation, in addition to a number of navy bases within the nation’s oil-rich japanese areas.
There, the US has allied with Kurdish-led forces to fight the growth of ISIL (ISIS). On Saturday, Blinken emphasised that the mission was nonetheless ongoing.
“The success that we’ve had during the last years in ending the territorial caliphate of ISIS, ensuring that ISIS was in a field and stays there — that is still a crucial mission,” he mentioned. “This can be a second when ISIS will search to regroup, making the most of the transition in Syria.”
However President-elect Trump, who is about to start a second time period within the White Home in January, has indicated he might chart a distinct path for the US.
Shortly earlier than the autumn of the al-Assad authorities on December 8, Trump posted on social media that he would maintain his distance from Syria.
“Syria is a large number, however just isn’t our pal,” Trump wrote. “THE UNITED STATES SHOULD HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH IT. THIS IS NOT OUR FIGHT. LET IT PLAY OUT. DO NOT GET INVOLVED!”
Officers from the outgoing Biden administration, nevertheless, have been assembly with diplomats from the Arab League and different events this week to assist form the war-torn nation’s future.
Blinken on Saturday provided a abstract of their joint settlement. He outlined a imaginative and prescient for a “Syrian-led and Syrian-owned” transition course of that may ultimately lead to “an inclusive and consultant authorities”, the place the rights of all minorities are revered.
He additionally emphasised the necessary position the US has within the area, making a pointed case for not withdrawing from additional dialogues about Syria.
“America and our companions have an necessary stake in serving to the Syrian individuals chart this new path. We all know that what occurs inside Syria can have highly effective penalties nicely past its borders, from mass displacement to terrorism,” Blinken mentioned.
“We’ve seen how the autumn of a repressive regime can swiftly give strategy to extra battle and chaos, how the sneakers of 1 dictator could be stuffed by one other, or how interference by an outdoor nation could be thrown off solely to get replaced by one other.”