AQABA, Jordan– United State Assistant of State Antony Blinken stated Saturday that American authorities have actually remained in straight call with the Syrian rebel team that led the topple of Head of state Bashar Assad’s federal government however is marked an international terrorist company by the USA and others.
Blinken is the initial united state authorities to openly verify calls in between the Biden management and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, which led a union of armed resistance teams that ousted Assad from power last Sunday.
Talking at a press conference in Aqaba, Jordan, Blinken would certainly not review information of the calls however stated it was necessary for the united state to share messages to the team regarding its conduct and exactly how it means to regulate in a change duration.
” Yes, we have actually touched with HTS and with various other events,” Blinken stated. He included that “our message to the Syrian individuals is this: We desire them to prosper and we’re prepared to assist them do so.”
HTS, which was as soon as an associate of al-Qaida, has actually been created as an international terrorist company by the State Division given that 2018. That classification lugs with it serious assents, consisting of a restriction on the stipulation of any type of “worldly assistance” to the team or its participants. The assents do not, nevertheless, lawfully bar united state authorities from interacting with marked teams.
HTS has actually functioned to develop safety and security and begin a political shift after taking Damascus and has actually attempted to guarantee a public both shocked by Assad’s autumn and worried regarding extremist jihadis amongst the rebels. Anarchical leaders claim the team has actually braked with its extremist past.
The team’s leader, Ahmad al-Sharaa, previously called Abu Mohammed al-Golani, showed up in a video clip message Friday congratulating “the wonderful Syrian individuals for the triumph of the honored change.”
united state authorities claim Sharaa has actually been making welcome remarks regarding securing minority and females’s legal rights however continue to be hesitant that he will certainly follow up on them over time.
On Friday, the rebels and Syria’s unarmed resistance functioned to securely commit united state authorities an American male that had actually been locked up by Assad.
united state authorities are proceeding their look for Austin Tice, an American reporter that went away 12 years earlier near Damascus.
” We have actually thrilled upon every person we have actually touched with the significance helpful locate Austin Tice and bringing him home,” Blinken stated.
