US officials in ‘direct contact’ with victorious Syria rebels

The US has made “direct contact” with the HTS rebels who now control Syria after toppling the Assad regime, Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said.

It is the first acknowledgement of direct American contact with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which the US currently still designates as a terrorist organisation.

Blinken was speaking in Jordan after talks with representatives from several Arab countries, Turkey and Europe to discuss the future of Syria.

Officials agreed to support a peaceful transition process in the country, with Jordan’s foreign minister saying that regional powers did not want to see it “descend into chaos”.

A joint communique called for an inclusive Syrian government that respects the rights of minorities and does not offer a base for “terrorist groups”.

The talk both inside and outside Syria after the tumultuous events of recent weeks has been of the vital importance of setting up new governance that represents all Syrians.

At the meeting in Jordan, Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein expressed concern over Syria’s future shared across the Middle East and beyond.

He said regional players did not want to see another Libya – referring to the chaos that ensued after Colonel Gaddafi’s removal from power.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said existing Syrian institutions must be preserved and reformed.

“Never allow terrorism to take advantage of the transition period. And we have to coordinate our efforts and learn from the mistakes of the past,” Fidan said according to Reuters news agency.

Meanwhile, Israel has launched dozens more air strikes against Syria, according to a war monitor, despite regional condemnation.

Israel has previously said it was taking action to “destroy strategic capabilities” that threaten it.

The most powerful rebel group, HTS, has indicated that it is seeking an inclusive government. But the group’s violent jihadist past has left some doubting whether it will live up to such promises.

Blinken has said that Washington has been in direct contact with HTS – in particular over the fate of the long missing American journalist, Austin Tice.

“We’ve been in contact with HTS and with other parties,” Blinken told reporters in Jordan.

Missing from the talks in Jordan was any representative from Syria. The foreign ministers from eight Arab countries that did attend the meeting said they wanted to ensure that Syria was unified and not split along sectarian lines.

Also absent were the two countries that gave financial support to Assad that enabled him to survive in power for so long – Iran and Russia.

The shadow of all the outside forces that battled over Syria for so long hangs heavy on the country’s future.

The emerging political entities in Syria will need cohesion not just inside the country but outside, too, if there is to be any real hope for the Syrian people to build on the heady taste of freedom that they have experienced in the past week.

Syrian rebels ended Bashar al-Assad’s 24-year-long rule, with opposition forces taking the capital and forcing the president to flee to Russia on 8 December.

The overthrow followed a 13-year civil war, which started after Assad crushed pro-democracy protests. The fighting killed more than half a million people, displaced millions more, and embroiled international powers and their proxies.

HTS rebel leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, who previously used the name Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, has appointed Mohammed al-Bashir as Syria’s interim prime minister, and the world is now watching to see how Syria’s political landscape shapes up after the end of the Assad family’s half-century rule.

HTS was set up under a different name, Jabhat al-Nusra, in 2011 as a direct al-Qaeda affiliate. It was considered to be one of the most effective and deadly groups opposing President Assad.

It was proscribed as a terrorist group by the UN, the US, Turkey and other countries – and currently remains so.

But al-Sharaa has publicly broken ranks with al-Qaeda and HTS’s recent messaging has been one of inclusiveness and a rejection of violence or revenge.