US has been in direct contact with Syrian rebels who overthrew al-Assad, says Blinken

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Saturday that several US officials have been in direct contact with the Syrian rebel group he led the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assadwhich the United States and other countries have designated as a foreign terrorist organization.

Blinken is the first US official to publicly confirm contacts between President Joe Biden’s government and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, which led a coalition of armed opposition groups that overthrew Assad last Sunday.

At a news conference in Aqaba, Jordan, Blinken declined to reveal details of the contacts but said it was important for the United States to convey messages to the group about its conduct and how it intends to govern in a transition period.

“Yes, we have been in contact with HTS and other groups,” Blinken said. He added that “our message to the Syrian people is this: we want them to succeed and we are prepared to help them achieve it.”

Since 2018, the State Department has designated HTS, once an affiliate of Al Qaeda, as a foreign terrorist organization. That designation carries severe sanctions, including a ban on providing any “material support” to the group or its members. However, the sanctions do not legally prevent US officials from communicating with the groups so designated.

In an interview on Syrian television Saturday, the group’s leader, Ahmad al-Sharaa, formerly known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani, did not discuss any direct contact with the United States, but said new authorities in Damascus, the capital, maintain communication with Western embassies.

HTS has worked to establish security and initiate a political transition after taking Damascus and has tried to reassure a public shocked by the fall of Assad and worried about extremist jihadists among the rebels. Insurgent leaders say the group has broken with its extremist past.

Al-Sharaa appeared in a video message on Friday congratulating “the great Syrian people on the victory of the blessed revolution.”

U.S. officials say al-Sharaa has made encouraging comments about protecting the rights of minorities and women, but they doubt he will put them into practice in the long term.

On Friday, rebels and Syria’s unarmed opposition worked to safely hand over to U.S. authorities a fellow countryman who had been imprisoned by Assad.

US authorities are still searching for Austin Tice, an American journalist who disappeared 12 years ago near Damascus.

“We have impressed everyone we have been in contact with about the importance of helping find Austin Tice and bringing him home,” Blinken said.

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