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The US has been in direct contact with the Islamist motion that spearheaded the offensive to topple Bashar al-Assad regardless of its designation as a terrorist organisation, as western and regional powers push for a peaceable transition in Syria.
On Saturday US secretary of state Antony Blinken turned the primary American official to acknowledge that Washington had been involved with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which has taken management of Damascus.
After assembly regional counterparts in Jordan, he mentioned the US and its allies had agreed on a “set of shared rules” to information their help for Syria, together with a Syrian-led political transition that’s “inclusive and consultant” and respects all minorities.
Blinken mentioned that the rules had been “communicated” to the nation’s new leaders.
“As we see Syria transfer in that route and, in a Syrian-led and Syrian-owned course of, take these steps, we in flip will take a look at varied sanctions and different measures that we’ve taken and reply in type,” he mentioned.
The US, UN and EU all designate HTS, a former affiliate of al-Qaeda, as a terrorist organisation.
The group’s chief Abu Mohammed Jolani was designated a terrorist a decade in the past and has a $10mn US bounty on his head. Jolani renounced his hyperlinks to al-Qaeda in 2016 and has sought to rebrand himself as a extra reasonable Islamist chief.
The US and different western powers even have sanctions on the Syrian state, which has been shattered by greater than 13 years of civil battle and many years of the Assads’ corrupt, repressive rule.
Western nations and others within the area have been scrambling to reply to the quickly unfolding occasions in Syria after HTS led a lightning offensive that introduced the Assad household’s five-decade dynastic rule within the war-torn Arab state to an finish in lower than two weeks.
After advancing into Damascus final weekend with different insurgent factions, HTS named a caretaker prime minister who will lead an interim authorities till March. It has repeatedly pledged to guard minorities.
The autumn of Assad, who fled to Russia, has triggered scenes of jubilation throughout Syria, but additionally uncertainty about what comes subsequent.
Blinken mentioned that the US appreciates “a few of the constructive phrases that we’ve heard in current days, however what actually counts is motion and sustained motion”.
“This will’t be the choice or the occasion of someday. It has to actually be sustained over time,” Blinken mentioned.
The challenges dealing with Syria are large because the nation has been devastated by years of battle and dictatorial rule. The financial system is in a state of collapse and the civil battle pressured tens of millions from their properties and left many extra in determined want of humanitarian help.
It’s also a nation with a various mixture of religions and sects, and a number of armed factions.
Blinken mentioned there was a scarcity of gas and wheat, including that the US and its companions would concentrate on the “near-term want”.
Below Assad Syria relied on Iran, which backed the regime within the civil battle, for the overwhelming majority of its oil imports. However Tehran pulled 1000’s of Iranians in another country because the rebels superior on Damascus.
It imported wheat from Russia, which additionally backed Assad throughout the battle that erupted after the regime brutally crushed a 2011 fashionable rebellion.
The US has about 900 troops in Syria, the place they’ve been supporting the battle towards Isis and backing Kurdish-led militants within the battle towards the jihadist group.
Turkey considers the Kurdish fighters to be an extension of the Kurdistan Employees’ get together (PKK), which has been preventing the Turkish state for 4 many years.
Ankara backs Syrian insurgent teams that co-ordinated with HTS within the offensive towards Assad however have additionally fought with the Kurdish militants.
Blinken mentioned the transition in Syria was a “second of vulnerability during which Isis will search to regroup”.
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