U.S. diplomats meet with rebel leaders in 1st visit to Syria after Assad’s fall

U.S. officials were in Damascus Friday to hold talks with the country’s new leaders, the first group of American diplomats to formally visit Syria in more than a decade since Washington shuttered its embassy in Damascus in 2012.

Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf, former special envoy for Syria Daniel Rubinstein and the Biden administration’s chief envoy for hostage negotiations, Roger Carstens, made the trip for talks with Syria’s interim leaders, the State Department said early Friday.

A news conference the officials had planned was cancelled due to unspecified security concerns. Leaf and the others had left the Four Seasons hotel in Damascus earlier Friday without making any comments to waiting journalists.

“They met with representatives of HTS to discuss transition principles endorsed by the United States,” a State Department spokesperson said. “They also discussed regional events and the imperative of the fight against ISIS,” the spokesperson added.

The delegation engaged with civil society groups and members of different communities in Syria “about their vision for the future of their country and how the United States can help support them,” the spokesperson said.

Bashar al-Assad, Syria’s autocratic leader for over 20 years, fled early this month and was granted asylum by his patron Russia, ending his family’s decades-long rule.

The U.S. delegation’s travel followed contacts with France and Britain in recent days.

Shortly before the delegation arrived in Damascus, the U.S. military said it had conducted airstrikes in northeastern Syria on Thursday, killing a prominent Islamic State group figure and one other militant.

In a statement, the U.S. Central Command said the strike was in an area formerly controlled by the ousted Syrian government and was part of an ongoing effort to prevent ISIS insurgents from taking advantage of the upheaval in Syria, including any plan to release the more than 8,000 ISIS prisoners held in detention by Kurds who have partnered with the U.S.

Golani once sought by the U.S.

Biden and his top aides described the overthrow of Assad as a historic opportunity for the Syrian people who have for decades lived under his oppressive rule, but they also warned the country faced a period of risk and uncertainty.

The rebel group that spearheaded the assault on Damascus that forced Assad to flee — Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS — is designated a foreign terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and others. The designation occurred after Nusra Front, the predecessor of HTS, carried out suicide attacks that killed civilians and espoused a violent sectarian vision.

While that designation comes with a raft of sanctions, it does not prohibit U.S. officials from speaking to its members or leaders.

HTS replaced the Assad family rule with a three-month transitional government that had been ruling a rebel enclave in Syria’s northwestern province of Idlib.

The State Department said Rubinstein, Leaf and Carstens would meet with HTS officials but did not say if the group’s leader Ahmad al-Sharaa — better known as Abu Mohammed Al-Golani — would be among those they see.

The FBI seven years ago offered a reward of up to $10 million US for information on the wheareabouts of Golani, now 42.

Back in 2003, he joined insurgents battling U.S. troops in Iraq. The Syrian native was detained by the U.S. military for a time but was released and eventually found his way back to Syria, establishing Nusra Front before eventually breaking away from previous al-Qaeda and ISIS affiliations.

Golani has done interviews with Western media outlets in recent weeks; U.S. officials say Golani’s public statements about protecting minority and women’s rights are welcomed, but they remain skeptical that he will follow through on them in the long run.

The diplomats’ visit to Damascus will not result in the immediate reopening of the U.S. embassy, which is under the protection of the Czech government, according to U.S. officials, who said decisions on diplomatic recognition will be made when the new Syrian authorities make their intentions clear.

Troop size more than double what was previously known

While the U.S. suspended operations at its embassy in Damascus during the country’s civil war, there are U.S. troops in small parts of Syria engaged in the fight against the Islamic State militant group.

But the Pentagon revealed Thursday that the U.S. had doubled the number of its forces in Syria to fight ISIS before Assad’s fall to 2,000 troops.

“These additional forces are considered temporary rotational forces that deploy to meet shifting mission requirements, whereas the core 900 deployers are on longer term deployments.”

A priority for the U.S. government is also to seek information on the whereabouts of missing U.S. journalist Austin Tice, and other American citizens who went missing during the Assad regime.

Tice disappeared at a checkpoint in a contested area west of Damascus as the Syrian civil war intensified. A video released weeks after Tice went missing showed him blindfolded and held by armed men and saying, “Oh, Jesus.”

He has not been heard from since. Assad’s government publicly denied that it was holding him.