US diplomats make first visit to post-Assad Syria

State Department officials will hold talks with interim government installed by HTS and seek information on missing journalist Austin Tice

Workers put up the new Syrian flag as people attend Friday prayers at the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus. Reuters

Diplomats from the US State Department have arrived in the Syrian capital Damascus to meet the new interim government formed by Hayat Tahrir Al Sham, a group Washington designates as a terrorist organisation.

This is the first visit by US officials to Syria since rebel groups deposed Bashar Al Assad earlier this month, signalling Washington's readiness to engage with HTS, an offshoot of Al Qaeda that later renounced ties with the terrorist group.

The US has a $10 million bounty on HTS leader Ahmad Al Shara, now Syria's de facto ruler, who says the group has shed its extremist stance.

The State Department said Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf, former special envoy for Syria Daniel Rubinstein and the Biden administration’s chief envoy for hostage negotiations, Roger Carstens, would hold talks with Syrian civil groups as well as the interim government.

“They will be engaging directly with the Syrian people, including members of civil society, activists, members of different communities, and other Syrian voices about their vision for the future of their country and how the United States can help support them,” the department said in a statement released early on Friday.

HTS leader Ahmad Al Shara speaking at the Ummayad Mosque in Damascus after Syrian rebels deposed president Bashar Al Assad on December 8. Reuters

The trip comes a week after Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US had been in direct contact with HTS as he toured Syria’s neighbours, and follows diplomatic overtures by the EU and other countries that signal an end to Syria's pariah status under Mr Al Assad.

The State Department said Ms Leaf, Mr Rubinstein and Mr Carstens would meet HTS officials but did not say if that included Mr Al Shara, who has projected a moderate image since the takeover of Syria. US officials have welcomed Mr Al Shara’s statements about protecting minority and women’s rights, but they remain sceptical that he will follow through on them in the long run.

The visiting US diplomats will seek information on the whereabouts of American journalist Austin Tice who went missing in Syria in 2012. Tice, whose work has been published in The Washington Post, McClatchy newspapers and others, disappeared at a checkpoint in a contested area west of Damascus as the Syrian civil war intensified.

A video released weeks after Tice went missing showed him blindfolded and held by armed men and saying, “Oh, Jesus.” He has not been heard from since. The Assad government denied that it was holding him.

Journalist Austin Tice went missing in Syria in 2012. The Assad government denied it was holding him. Getty Images

The US diplomats will also push the principles of inclusion, protection of minorities and a rejection of terrorism and chemical weapons that the Biden administration says will be critical for any US support for a new government.

Last week, Mr Al Shara met Geir Pedersen, the UN special envoy for Syria, in Damascus, who said the international community will “hopefully see a quick end to sanctions, so that we can see really a rallying around building up Syria again”.

The US has not had a formal diplomatic presence in Syria since 2012, when it suspended operations at its embassy in Damascus during the country’s civil war, although US troops have been stationed in the north-east to help prevent the resurgence of ISIS.

The Pentagon revealed on Thursday that it has doubled the number of US forces in Syria. The US has also significantly stepped up air strikes against ISIS targets over concern that a power vacuum would allow the extremist group to reconstitute itself.

The diplomats' visit to Damascus will not result in the immediate reopening of the US embassy, which is under the protection of the Czech government, according to US officials. Decisions on diplomatic recognition will be made when the new Syrian authorities make their intentions clear, the officials said.