A US delegation visits Syria for the first time in a decade to meet with the new authorities

Diplomats will meet with jihadist representatives and seek information about reporter Austin Tice, who disappeared in 2012

Dec. 20 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The first US diplomatic delegation in more than a decade arrived this Friday in the capital of Syria, Damascus, to meet with the new authorities led by the jihadist group Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS), champion of the offensive that has already been underway. Almost two weeks put an end to the regime of former Syrian president Bashar al Assad after half a century of family dynasty at the head of the country.

The mission has the double objective of gauging first-hand the current political situation in the country in a complex stage of transition and gathering information on the condition of the American reporter Austin Tice, who disappeared twelve years ago and was kidnapped, according to US Intelligence sources. , by the Al Assad regime.

The delegation is led by the White House special envoy for hostage release and retired US Army colonel, Roger Carstens, and the State Department’s special adviser for the Middle East, Daniel Rubinstein, according to a US government spokesman. the main American media.

The diplomats will meet with representatives of HTS following the line of contacts with the jihadist group that was confirmed last Sunday by the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, in a turn to a doctrine that for years has designated this organization as a group terrorist, as well as its leader and current strongman of Syria, Abu Mohamed al Golani.

The talks with HTS will follow “the principles for the Syrian transition” stipulated at the meeting of foreign ministers from Arab countries, the European Union, the United States and Turkey held last weekend in Aqaba (Jordan), whose attendees ratified the lines guidelines outlined in Resolution 2254 approved in 2015 by the United Nations Security Council to achieve peace in the country.

Al Golani, however, last Sunday asked the UN special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, to reconsider the current terms of the resolution, understanding that it was issued with President Al Assad in mind and that the country is now in a “new reality”, according to the jihadist leader, after his group came to power.

In any case, the US delegation will also meet “with members of civil society, activists, members of different communities to study their vision of the future for the country and the way in which the United States can contribute to its achievement,” according to the spokesperson. .