• Top US diplomat meets HTS chief in Damascus
• Erdogan urges restoration of Syria’s territorial integrity

DAMASCUS: Washington has scrap­ped a long-standing reward for the arrest of Syria’s new leader, a 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 president Bashar Al Assad on Dec 8 was led by the Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS), which is rooted in Al Qaeda’s Syria branch.

Barbara Leaf’s meeting with HTS chief Sharaa came despite Wash­ington’s six-year-old designation of his group as a “terrorist organisation”.

“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 polarisation,” the statement said.

Leaf said she told 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 included Roger Carstens, the pointman on Israeli prisoners in Hamas captivity. The US embassy said Barbara Leaf also met 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 commemorated the tens of thousands of people murdered, tortured, disappeared or detained under Assad.

“The US commitment to hold accountable those responsible for these atrocities is unwavering,” the embassy said on X.

Foreign minister named

Syria’s new rulers appointed a foreign minister, the official Syrian news agency said on Saturday.

The General Command named Asaad Hassan Al Shibani as foreign minister, Sana said.

A source in the new administration said this step “comes in response to the aspirations of the Syrian people to establish international relations that bring peace and stability”.

Syria’s de facto ruler, Ahmed Al Sharaa, has actively engaged with foreign delegations since assuming power, including hosting the UN’s Syria envoy and senior US diplomats.

Earlier, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who backed Assad’s opponents, stressed reconciliation and restoration of Syria’s territorial integrity and unity.

Turkiye has been putting pressure on Kurdish-led forces in Syria, and Erdogan said it was time to destroy “terrorist” groups operating in the country, specifically IS and Kurdish fighters. “Daesh, the PKK and their affiliates — which threaten the survival of Syria — must be eradicated,” he told journalists following a summit in Cairo, referring to IS and the Kurdistan Workers Party, respectively.

The autonomous administration in north-eastern Syria is protected by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, mostly made up of the Peoples Protection Units (YPG).

Turkiye accuses the YPG of being a branch of the PKK, which both Washington and Ankara consider a terrorist group.

Leaf said Washington was urging a ceasefire between Turkish-backed forces and the SDF around the Kurdish-held Syrian border town of Kobane.

Published in Dawn, December 22nd, 2024