The United States has dropped a $10 million ($7.9 million) reward for the capture of Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed Al-Shara after meetings between senior diplomats and representatives of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).
Assistant Secretary of State Barbara Leaf said the talks with Schara were “very productive” and came across as “pragmatic”.
The US delegation arrived in the capital, Damascus, shortly after HTS overthrew the government of Bashar al-Assad. Washington still considers it a terrorist group.
A State Department spokesman confirmed that diplomats discussed US-backed “principles of transition”, regional events and the need to fight IS.
The spokesman also said officials are seeking more information about American citizens who have gone missing under Assad’s rule, including journalists. Austin Ticewho was kidnapped in Damascus in 2012, and a psychotherapist Majid Kamalmazwho went missing in 2017.
A US embassy spokesman said earlier that a news conference involving Ms Leaf had been canceled due to “security concerns”.
However during a later briefing, Leaf denied this, insisting that “street events” were the reason for the delay.
This is the first official US diplomatic visit to Damascus in more than a decade.
It’s another sign of the dramatic changes in Syria since Assad’s ouster, and the pace of efforts by the United States and Europe to influence Arab states over his emerging rule.
The visit follows recent delegations from the United Nations and other countries including the UK, France and Germany.
A delegation of high officials Barbara Leaf, Roger Carstens, US President Joe Biden’s hostage envoy, and Daniel Rubinstein, senior adviser at the Bureau of Near East Affairs.
The spokesman also said the delegation spoke with civil society groups and members of various communities in Syria about “their vision for the future of their country and how the United States can help them.”
The meeting was a show of readiness to deal with HTS, which the US still considers a terrorist organization but is pressing it to transition to a more inclusive, non-sectarian government.
Washington is effectively offering a set of conditions before the group can consider expelling it – a key step that could help ease the path to sanctions relief that Damascus desperately needs.
Meanwhile, US Central Command (CENTCOM) has confirmed that IS leader Abu Yusuf and two of his operatives have been killed in an airstrike in Deir Ezzor province in northeastern Syria.
It said in a statement on Friday that the airstrikes were launched on Thursday and carried out in an area previously controlled by the Assad regime and Russian forces supporting his regime.
CENTCOM commander General Michael Eric Corrella said the U.S. will not allow IS to “take advantage of the current situation in Syria and rebuild,” adding that the group has more than 8,000 IS militants in custody in Syria. Intends to release.