Washington is scrapping a long-standing reward for the arrest of Syria’s new chief, a senior U.S. diplomat stated Friday, following “optimistic messages” from a primary assembly that included a promise to combat terrorism.
Barbara Leaf, Washington’s high diplomat for the Center East, made the feedback after her assembly with Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus — the primary formal mission to Syria’s capital by United States diplomats because the early days of Syria’s civil struggle.
The lightning offensive that toppled president Bashar al-Assad on December 8 was led by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which is rooted in Al-Qaeda’s Syria department however has sought to average its picture in recent times.
Leaf’s assembly with HTS chief Sharaa got here regardless of Washington’s six-year-old designation of his group as a terrorist organisation.
“Based mostly on our dialogue, I instructed him we’d not be pursuing the Rewards for Justice reward provide,” Leaf instructed reporters.
After their talks, “it is somewhat incoherent, then, to have a bounty on the man’s head,” she stated, welcoming the messages from him.
“We can be in search of progress on these ideas and actions, not simply phrases,” she stated.
After the assembly, a press release from Syria’s new leaders stated they needed to contribute to regional peace.
“The Syrian folks stand at an equal distance from all nations and events within the area… Syria rejects any polarisation,” the assertion stated.
Leaf stated she instructed Sharaa of the “essential want to make sure terrorist teams can’t pose a risk inside Syria or externally, together with to the US and our companions within the area.”
“Ahmed al-Sharaa dedicated to this,” she stated.
The US delegation additionally included Roger Carstens, the US pointman on hostages. He stated he labored on Friday with the brand new Syrian management to look a location the place American journalist Austin Tice might have been held, and “we’ll be working with the interim authorities” to look at different areas.
Tice was kidnapped in Syria in August 2012.
– US strikes IS –
On a regional tour previous to the Aqaba talks, Secretary of State Antony Blinken had burdened the necessity to forestall a resurgence of Islamic State group (IS) jihadists.
The US army stated on Friday its forces had killed an IS chief and one other operative in Deir Ezzor province, a part of escalated US army motion in opposition to the group since Assad’s overthrow.
The US embassy stated Leaf additionally met with Syria’s White Helmet rescuers, civil society leaders, activists and others “to listen to immediately from them about their imaginative and prescient for the way forward for their nation”.
Beneath {a photograph} of Leaf and others with a memorial wreath, the embassy stated she had additionally commemorated the tens of hundreds of individuals murdered, tortured, disappeared or detained beneath Assad.
“The US dedication to carry accountable these chargeable for these atrocities is unwavering,” the embassy stated on X.
– Turkish stress –
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who backed Assad’s opponents, has burdened reconciliation and restoration of Syria’s territorial integrity and unity.
Turkey has been placing stress on Kurdish-led forces in Syria, and Erdogan stated Friday it was time to destroy “terrorist” teams working within the nation, particularly IS and Kurdish fighters.
“Daesh, the PKK and their associates — which threaten the survival of Syria — have to be eradicated,” he instructed journalists following a summit in Cairo, referring to IS and the Kurdistan Employees Celebration, respectively.
The autonomous administration in northeastern Syria is protected by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, principally made up of the Folks’s Safety Items (YPG).
Turkey accuses the YPG of being a department of the PKK, which each Washington and Ankara think about a terrorist group.
Kurdish leaders in Syria have welcomed Assad’s ouster and raised the three-star independence-era insurgent flag, however many within the area concern continued assaults by Turkey and allied fighters.
Leaf stated Washington was urging a ceasefire between Turkish-backed forces and the SDF across the Kurdish-held Syrian border city of Kobane, also referred to as Ain al-Arab.
On a go to to Ankara on Friday, German Overseas Minister Annalena Baerbock warned of the hazards of any “escalation” of the combating, saying: “Safety, particularly for Kurds, is important for a free and safe future for Syria.”
Iran and Russia had lengthy helped to prop up Assad, however on Friday Leaf stated she anticipated Syria would fully finish any position for Iran.
Amy Pope, the top of the UN migration company, on Friday urged “the caretaker authorities to proceed to empower and allow girls, as a result of they’ll be completely essential to the rebuilding of the nation”.
Pope additionally known as for the raft of worldwide sanctions on Syria to be reassessed to assist the nation regain its footing.
Syria’s civil struggle killed greater than 500,000 folks and sparked an exodus of tens of millions of refugees.
On Friday, nearly two weeks after Assad’s fall and flight to Moscow, Syrians continued to have a good time. Fireworks exploded over Umayyad Sq. in Damascus, the place flag-waving crowds gathered.
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