This is the first public admission of interaction with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the terrorist organization that deposed Assad. Share

The US administration has been in “direct contact” with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the terrorist group that overthrew Bashar Assad’s rule in Syria, according to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. “We’ve been in contact with HTS and other parties,” Blinken told reporters in Jordan on Saturday. Western countries have been debating how to deal with the Syrian rebels that took control of Damascus last Sunday and are commanded by HTS, which the US and the UK have labelled as a terrorist organization.

The first public confirmation of connection with HTS came at the end of Blinken’s diplomatic tour of the region, prompted by the abrupt end of Assad’s decades-long leadership. He approved a list of guiding principles for Syria’s transition with representatives from eight Arab countries, Turkey, the European Union, and the United Nations. The agreement states that the transition process must be Syrian-led and inclusive, that all Syrians’ rights, including women’s rights, must be respected, that humanitarian relief must be unhindered, that Syria cannot be used as a terrorist base, and that all chemical weapons stocks must be destroyed.

“Now, no one has any illusions about how challenging this time will be, but there’s also something incredibly powerful at work: a Syrian people determined to break with the past and shape a better future,” said Blinken. The US source also highlighted that finding and bringing back Austin Tice, an American freelance journalist who is believed to have been kidnapped near Damascus in August 2012 while reporting the country’s civil war, will be a key priority.

Meanwhile, Reuters reported on Sunday that France wants to send a team of diplomats to Syria on Tuesday to assess the political and security situation. According to the newspaper, “a team of French diplomats will travel to Syria this Tuesday to mark France’s willingness to support the Syrian people,” the foreign ministry in Paris said. Most EU nations have cheered Assad’s demise, but they are debating whether to engage with the rebels that deposed him.