BURSTSecretary of State Antony Blinken said that U.S. officials have been in "direct contact" with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the Syrian opposition group that effectively led to the collapse of Bashar Assad's regime in the country, the Associated Press reported.
“Yes, we have been in contact with HTS and with other parties,” Blinken said Saturday at a news conference in Aqaba, Jordan, as reported by AP. He also said that “our message to the Syrian people is this: We want them to succeed and we’re prepared to help them do so."
HTS is an al Qaeda offshoot, though it has tried to rebrand itself as a more moderate Islamist movement. The U.S designates it as a foreign terrorist organization.
The rebel group has already set up a transitional government that will lead Syria through March 2025. Its acting prime minister is a former administrator of the northwestern provinces governed by the group, Mohammed al-Bashir.
HTS's leader, Ahmad al-Sharaa, formerly known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani according to AP, is portraying himself as a moderate to Western leaders concerned about whether the country will suppress minority communities or become a haven for violent extremists.
AP reported that the leader appeared in a video message Friday applauding “the great Syrian people for the victory of the blessed revolution.”
The collapse of Assad's government has created an obstacle for the counter-ISIS mission for the roughly 900 U.S. troops in the country, while also complicating Washington’s allies in the region.
While Assad’s main backers, Iran and Russia, are likely to be impacted the most from the collapse, the U.S. and its Kurdish allies will now have to work with a coalition of rebels largely backed by Turkey, which considers Kurdish fighters terrorists.
As President-elect Trump is set to take office next month, concerns have swirled around the Republican leader's call for the U.S. to stay out of Syrian affairs and the possibility of pulling the roughly 900 American troops out of the country.