The United States said on Saturday it has contacted Syria’s victorious Hayat Tahrir al-Sham rebels, as Western and Arab states along with Turkey jointly expressed support for a united, peaceful Syria.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s comments on “direct contacts” with HTS rebels came despite the United States designating the group a terrorist in 2018.
While Blinken and other diplomats held talks on Syria in Aqaba, Jordan, Turkey reopened its embassy in Damascus, nearly a week after Islamist-led rebels ousted President Bashar al-Assad from power — and Ankara in Syria. 12 years after the early closure of the diplomatic mission of. Civil war.
“We are in contact with HTS and other parties,” Blinken told reporters. Without explaining how the contact happened.
Ankara has been a major player in the Syrian conflict, exerting considerable influence in the northwest, funding armed groups there, and maintaining a working relationship with HTS, which led the attack that ousted Assad. Was.
In a joint statement after the meeting in Jordan, diplomats from the United States, Turkey, the European Union and Arab countries “full support for the Syrian people to build a more hopeful, secure and peaceful future at this critical point in their history.” to be confirmed.” ,
He called for a Syrian-led transition to “form an inclusive, non-sectarian and representative government formed through a transparent process” with respect for human rights.
“Syria finally has a chance to end decades of isolation,” the group said.
The head of the US-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in the country’s north-east called on X for Kurds on Saturday to “adopt a favorable stance towards Syrian negotiations”.
UN Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen urged participants in the Jordanian talks to provide humanitarian aid and ensure that “state institutions do not collapse”.
A delegation from the Gulf emirate will visit Syria on Sunday to meet transitional government officials for aid and talks on reopening its embassy, a Qatari diplomat said on Friday.
Unlike other Arab countries, Qatar never restored diplomatic relations with Assad after its separation in 2011.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said in Jordan that the bloc, Syria’s biggest aid provider, “is interested in the reconstruction and reconstruction of Syria”.
Assad fled Syria last weekend, hours before rebel forces captured Damascus, five former officials told AFP.
His flight left Syrians in joyous disbelief at the sudden end of an era in which suspected dissidents were jailed or killed.
The war lasted for more than a decade, killing more than 500,000 people and displacing millions.
‘Such a big tragedy’
The Sunni Muslim HTS is rooted in Syria’s branch of al-Qaeda and has been designated a “terrorist” organization by several Western governments.
But the group has tried to moderate its rhetoric. The interim government emphasizes that the rights of all Syrians will be protected under the rule of law.
“We appreciate some of the positive words we have heard in recent days, but what matters is action – and continued action,” Blinken said.
“If the change goes ahead, we will look at different restrictions and other measures we can take,” he said.
Pubs and liquor stores in Damascus initially closed following the rebel victory, but are now temporarily reopening.
“You have the right to work and live your life as you did before,” said Safi, the landlord of Papa Bar in the Old City, the rebels told him.
But in Abu Dhabi, Anwar Gargash, adviser to the president of the United Arab Emirates, said “we need to remain vigilant” despite HTS’s talk of unity.
Thousands of Syrians have stormed the country’s notorious detention centers last week, searching for evidence that could lead them to loved ones who disappeared under Assad’s repressive rule.
Some former prisoners, like Mohammed Darwish, are also returning as free men to the places where they were once imprisoned, seeking closure.
“When the door closed behind us, we sank into the depths of despair. This cell was witness to so many tragedies,” he said in his former windowless cell in a Damascus prison.
Syrians struggle to even meet their needs in a country devastated by war, hyperinflation and years of sanctions.
The situation in the country remains extremely unstable.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least four rebel fighters were killed in an ambush by “elements loyal to the former regime” near an Assad relative’s villa on the Mediterranean coast on Saturday.
‘Dumb politics’
Assad was backed by Russia – where a former ally told AFP he had fled – as well as Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group.
Rebels launched their offensive on November 27, the same day a ceasefire came into effect in the Israel-Hezbollah war in Lebanon, in which Assad’s ally has suffered heavy losses.
Naim Qassim, the leader of Iran-backed Hezbollah, acknowledged on Saturday that, with the fall of Assad, his group would no longer be able to get military supplies through Syria.
He also said he expected Syria’s new rulers to view Israel as an “enemy” and not normalize relations with the country.
Both Israel and Turkey have launched military attacks inside Syria since the fall of Assad.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported more than 60 Israeli attacks across Syria over several hours on Saturday.
For UAE adviser Gargash, such attacks are “dumb politics”, even though “structurally degrading Syrian capabilities can be seen as a sensible thing from an Israeli practical point of view”.
Israel has also ordered troops into the UN-patrolled buffer zone that separates Israeli and Syrian forces on the Golan Heights, a move the UN said violates a 1974 ceasefire.
HTS leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, now using his real name Ahmed al-Sharaa, said the Israeli move “dangers a new unjustified tension in the region”.
But he said in an online statement, “The general exhaustion in Syria after years of war and conflict does not allow us to enter into new conflicts.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
