US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (L) meets with the United Nations (UN) Particular Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen (R) in Jordan’s southern Crimson Sea coastal metropolis of Aqaba on December 14, 2024. (Picture by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / POOL / AFP)
DAMASCUS, Syria — The USA stated on Saturday it has made contact with Syria’s victorious Hayat Tahrir al-Sham rebels, as Western and Arab states together with Turkey collectively voiced assist for a united, peaceable Syria.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s touch upon “direct contact” with the HTS rebels got here regardless of the USA having designated the group as terrorists in 2018.
Whereas Blinken and different diplomats held talks on Syria in Aqaba, Jordan, Turkey reopened its embassy in Damascus, almost every week after the Islamist-led rebels toppled president Bashar al-Assad, and 12 years after Ankara’s diplomatic mission was shuttered early in Syria’s civil struggle.
“We’ve been in touch with HTS and with different events,” Blinken advised reporters, with out specifying how the contact came about.
Ankara has been a significant participant in Syria’s battle, holding appreciable sway within the northwest, financing armed teams there, and sustaining a working relationship with HTS which spearheaded the offensive that introduced down Assad.
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The Turkish flag rose over the diplomatic mission in an embassy district of Damascus, within the presence of the brand new cost d’affaires Burhan Koroglu, an AFP journalist stated.
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In a joint assertion after the assembly in Jordan, diplomats “affirmed the complete assist to the Syrian folks at this vital level of their historical past to construct a extra hopeful, safe and peaceable future.”
They referred to as for a Syrian-led transition to “produce an inclusive, non-sectarian and consultant authorities shaped by means of a clear course of” with respect for human rights.
“Syria lastly has the prospect to finish many years of isolation,” the group stated.
The top of the US-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, within the nation’s northeast, on Saturday appealed on X for Kurds “to undertake a good place towards the Syrian dialogue.”
UN particular envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen urged contributors within the Jordan talks to supply humanitarian support and to make sure “that state establishments don’t collapse.”
A Qatari diplomat stated on Friday {that a} delegation from the Gulf emirate would go to Syria on Sunday to satisfy transitional authorities officers for talks on support and the reopening of its embassy.
In contrast to different Arab states, Qatar by no means restored diplomatic ties with Assad after a rupture in 2011.
The European Union’s international coverage chief Kaja Kallas stated in Jordan that the bloc, Syria’s largest support supplier, is “excited by rebuilding and reconstruction of Syria.”
Assad fled Syria hours earlier than insurgent forces seized Damascus, 5 former officers advised AFP.
His flight left Syrians in joyous disbelief on the sudden finish to an period during which suspected dissidents have been jailed or killed, and capped greater than a decade of struggle that killed in extra of 500,000 folks and displaced tens of millions.
A lot tragedy’
Sunni Muslim HTS is rooted in Syria’s department of Al-Qaeda and is designated a “terrorist” group by many Western governments.
Nonetheless, the group has sought to average its rhetoric. The interim authorities insists the rights of all Syrians can be protected, as will the rule of regulation.
“We recognize a few of the optimistic phrases we heard in current days, however what issues is motion — and sustained motion,” Blinken stated.
If a transition strikes ahead, “we in flip will have a look at numerous sanctions and different measures that we’ve taken,” he added.
Pubs and liquor shops in Damascus initially closed following the insurgent victory however at the moment are tentatively reopening.
“‘You will have the appropriate to work and dwell your life as you probably did earlier than’,” Safi, the owner of Papa bar within the Previous Metropolis, stated the rebels had advised him.
In Abu Dhabi, Anwar Gargash, a presidential adviser within the United Arab Emirates, stated “we should be on guard” regardless of HTS’s speak of unity.
1000’s of Syrians have swarmed the nation’s infamous detention facilities over the previous week, looking for proof which may make them family members who disappeared beneath Assad’s repressive rule.
Some former prisoners, like Mohammed Darwish, are additionally returning as free males to the place they have been as soon as incarcerated, looking for closure.
“When the door closed behind us, we have been plunged into the depths of despair. This cell was witness to a lot tragedy,” he stated, again at his former windowless cell in a Damascus jail.
Syrians additionally face a wrestle for requirements in a rustic ravaged by struggle, runaway inflation, and sanctions that have been imposed towards Assad’s authorities.
‘Dumb politics’
Russia propped up Assad — the place a former aide advised AFP he fled to — in addition to Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group.
The rebels launched their offensive on November 27, the identical day a ceasefire took impact within the Israel-Hezbollah struggle in Lebanon, during which Assad’s ally suffered staggering losses.
Naim Qassem, the chief of Iran-backed Hezbollah, admitted on Saturday that, with Assad’s fall, his group can now not be provided militarily by means of Syria.
He additionally stated he hoped Syria’s new rulers see Israel “as an enemy” and don’t normalize ties with the nation.
Each Israel and Turkey have carried out army strikes inside Syria since Assad’s fall.
A Britain-based struggle monitor reported extra Israeli strikes Saturday on army amenities.
To Gargash, the UAE adviser, such strikes are “dumb politics” regardless that “to structurally degrade Syrian capabilities could be seen as a wise factor from an Israeli sensible viewpoint.”
Israel has additionally ordered troops right into a UN-patrolled buffer zone that separated Israeli and Syrian forces on the Golan Heights, a transfer the UN stated violated a 1974 armistice.
HTS chief Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, now utilizing his actual identify Ahmed al-Sharaa, stated the Israeli transfer “threatens a brand new unjustified escalation within the area.”
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However “the final exhaustion in Syria after years of struggle and battle doesn’t permit us to enter new conflicts,” he stated in a web-based assertion.