WASHINGTON – Senior US diplomats traveled to Damascus on Friday and met for the first time ever with the rebels who toppled longtime dictator Bashar al-Assad. Washington officially considers the rebel group terrorists.
U.S. officials said they had urged the rebel-installed interim government to respect the rights of Syria's many ethnic and religious sects, as well as women. They said they had received new clues about the fate of long-missing American journalist Austin Tice, but were unable to reach a conclusion about his whereabouts or existence.
In an initial goodwill gesture, the Biden administration canceled a $10 million bounty it had placed on the head of rebel leader Ahmed Sharaa, also known as Abu Mohammad Julani.
Barbara Leaf, the top U.S. diplomat for the Middle East and head of the delegation, said it made sense to remove the reward because she and the other officials met with him in person.
Leaf was accompanied by Roger Carstens, the government's lead hostage negotiation official, and former special envoy for Syria Daniel Rubinstein. They spoke to reporters by telephone after leaving Damascus.
It was the first time U.S. officials made an official visit to Damascus since the U.S. embassy there closed in 2012, as the country descended into a brutal civil war. The Russian- and Iranian-backed Assad regime is believed to have killed tens of thousands of people, while many more were tortured in overcrowded, grim secret prisons.
Assad fled the country two weeks ago when rebels led by Sharaa's group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) stormed Damascus. It was a rapid and spectacular collapse of a dynastic regime that had terrorized the nation for half a century.
But the next steps are complicated for US politicians. Washington has officially classified HTS as a terrorist group. HTS traces its roots to the Islamic State and al-Qaeda terror groups but claims it has reformed. The designation brings with it numerous economic sanctions and makes support from aid organizations or other parties more difficult.
Leaf would not say whether HTS would be removed from the terrorism list or whether sanctions would be lifted.
When asked if she thought Sharaa had become a more moderate leader, Leaf seemed willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. She described him as “pragmatic” and the discussions as “pretty good, very productive, detailed,” covering “a wide range of topics at home and abroad.”
“We've been hearing this for some time, some very pragmatic and moderate statements on various issues, from women's rights to protecting equal rights for all communities, etc.,” Leaf said. “It was a good first meeting. We will judge by actions, not just words. Actions are what matter.”
Carstens said U.S. officials believed Assad ran about a dozen secret prisons, but as victims emerge and information comes to light, it appears there may have been 40 or more. While the U.S. has been working with what Carstens called credible evidence that Tice, the journalist, may have been held in as many as six prisons, new information suggests he may have been in one or two other prisons. The search is moving slowly because the U.S. still has a limited presence in Syria, mostly with a few hundred troops but no diplomatic or law enforcement personnel.
“We’ll be like bulldogs there,” said Carstens. “We will not stop until we find the information we need to find out what happened to Austin, where he is, and to return him home to his family.”
Tice, a freelance reporter who would be 43 today, was kidnapped by gunmen at a checkpoint near Damascus in August 2012 and has not been heard from since.