WASHINGTON — A delegation of American diplomats arrived in Damascus on Friday to debate Syria’s political transition with its interim leaders and to hunt info on journalist Austin Tice and different lacking People.
The delegation contains Assistant Secretary of State for Close to Japanese Affairs Barbara Leaf, Particular Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs Roger Carstens and Daniel Rubinstein, the State Division’s newly appointed particular adviser on Syria.
They’re the primary US diplomats to formally go to the Syrian capital in over a decade, lower than two weeks after President Bashar al-Assad was toppled in a lightning offensive led by Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. The US officers will have interaction “instantly with the Syrian folks” about “their imaginative and prescient for the way forward for their nation and the way the USA can assist assist them,” the State Division stated early Friday.
They plan to fulfill with HTS representatives “to debate transition ideas” outlined by the USA and regional companions. Final week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated that future US recognition of Syria’s authorities could be conditioned on its respect for the rights of girls and minorities, making certain the nation isn’t used as a base for terrorism, destruction of the previous regime’s chemical weapons and a transition course of that results in an “inclusive and consultant authorities.”
US officers say early indicators from HTS are encouraging, however stay skeptical of its guarantees of inclusive governance and tolerance for minorities. The group stays on the State Division listing of international terrorist organizations because of its previous affiliation with al-Qaeda. The group’s chief, Abu Mohammed al-Golani, can also be sanctioned.
They hope to uncover details about Tice, Majd Kamalmaz and different People imprisoned by the regime in the course of the practically 14-year civil conflict, the State Division stated.
President Joe Biden stated he believes Tice, who was taken at a checkpoint in Damascus in 2012, remains to be alive however his whereabouts are unknown. Kamalmaz, a Virginia-based medical psychologist, was kidnapped within the Syrian capital in 2017. US officers instructed his household earlier this 12 months that they had intelligence indicating he was useless.
