Washington is scrapping a long-standing reward for the arrest of Syria’s new leader, a senior US diplomat said on Friday following “positive messages” from a first meeting that included a promise to fight terrorism.
Barbara Leaf, Washington’s top diplomat for the Middle East, made the comments after her meeting with Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus — the first formal mission to Syria’s capital by US diplomats since the early days of Syria’s civil war.
The lightning offensive that toppled former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad on Dec. 8 was led by the Muslim Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which is rooted in al-Qaeda’s Syria branch, but has sought to moderate its image in recent years.
Photo: Reuters
Leaf’s meeting with HTS chief al-Sharaa came despite Washington’s six-year-old designation of his group as a terrorist organization.
“Based on our discussion, I told him we would not be pursuing the Rewards for Justice reward offer,” Leaf told reporters.
After their talks, “it’s a little incoherent, then, to have a bounty on the guy’s head,” she said, welcoming the messages from him.
“We will be looking for progress on these principles and actions, not just words,” she said.
After the meeting, a statement from Syria’s new leaders said they wanted to contribute to regional peace.
“The Syrian people stand at an equal distance from all countries and parties in the region... Syria rejects any polarization,” the statement said.
Leaf said she told al-Sharaa of the “critical need to ensure terrorist groups cannot pose a threat inside of Syria or externally, including to the US and our partners in the region.”
“Ahmed al-Sharaa committed to this,” she said.
The US delegation also included Roger Carstens, the US point man on hostages. He said he worked on Friday with the new Syrian leadership to search a location where US journalist Austin Tice could have been held, and “we’ll be working with the interim authorities” to examine other locations.
Tice was kidnapped in Syria in August 2012.
On a regional tour prior to the Aqaba talks, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had stressed the need to prevent a resurgence of Islamic State (IS) group militants.
The US military on Friday said its forces had killed an IS leader and another operative in Deir Ezzor province, part of escalated US military action against the group since al-Assad’s overthrow.
The US embassy said Leaf also met with Syria’s White Helmet rescuers, civil society leaders, activists and others “to hear directly from them about their vision for the future of their country.”
Below a photograph of Leaf and others with a memorial wreath, the embassy said she had also commemorated the tens of thousands of people murdered, tortured, disappeared or detained under al-Assad.
“The US commitment to hold accountable those responsible for these atrocities is unwavering,” the embassy said on X.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who backed al-Assad’s opponents, has stressed reconciliation and restoration of Syria’s territorial integrity and unity.
Turkey has been putting pressure on Kurdish-led forces in Syria, and Erdogan on Friday said it was time to destroy “terrorist” groups operating in the country, specifically IS and Kurdish fighters.
“DAESH [IS], the PKK [the Kurdistan Workers’ Party] and their affiliates — which threaten the survival of Syria — must be eradicated,” he told journalists following a summit in Cairo.
The autonomous administration in northeastern Syria is protected by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), mostly made up of the People’s Protection Units (YPG).
Turkey accuses the YPG of being a branch of the PKK, which Washington and Ankara consider a terrorist group.
Kurdish leaders in Syria have welcomed al-Assad’s ouster and raised the three-star independence-era rebel flag, but many in the region fear continued attacks by Turkey and allied fighters.
Washington was urging a ceasefire between Turkish-backed forces and the SDF around the Kurdish-held Syrian border town of Kobane, also known as Ain al-Arab, Leaf said.
On a visit to Ankara on Friday, German Minister of Foreign Affairs Annalena Baerbock warned of the dangers of any “escalation” of the fighting, saying that “security, especially for Kurds, is essential for a free and secure future for Syria.”
Iran and Russia had long helped to prop up al-Assad, but on Friday Leaf said she expected Syria would completely end any role for Iran.
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