The US is working with the Islamist rebel group that overthrew the Syrian government last week, with the goal of finding an American journalist held hostage, according to reports.
The collapse of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, which sent him fleeing to Russia, and the takeover by the jihadist rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, has sparked fears of instability in an already tense region.
HTS, which was once was affiliated with al-Qaeda but broke from the group, remains on the State Department’s terrorism list.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken has been holding meetings across the Middle East, including in Turkey and Iraq, to facilitate the transition, signaling a US desire to ensure stability in Syria.
“Syria has changed more in less than a week than in any week this last half-century,” Blinken told reporters.
“Our message to the Syrian people is this: We want them to succeed and we’re prepared to help them do so.”
A focus of his meeting meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan Friday was countering the resurgence of the Islamic State in Syria.
Diplomats from the US, the Arab League and Turkey met in Jordan Saturday to discuss Syria’s transition, the Wall Street Journal reported, but no representatives from Syria itself attended those talks.
After the meetings, Middle Eastern leaders said in a statement that they agree to “support a peaceful transition process” in Syria “in which all political and social forces are represented.”
Blinken also said he “impressed upon everyone” the importance of finding missing American journalist Austin Tice.
The freelancer and Marine veteran disappeared in 2012 while covering the Syrian civil war.
Tice, 43, hasn’t been heard from since, though his family announced last week that they had intel that he is alive and they have renewed hopes for his return given the changes in Syria.
New reporting revealed that Tice was seen twice following his arrest: once in 2013 after briefly escaping captivity and again in 2016 when he was transported to a hospital in Damascus.
Tice’s escape from prison is the strongest evidence the US government has indicating that forces loyal to Assad held Tice, the Reuters report said.
Meanwhile, Israeli is also taking advantage of Assad’s downfall to find the Syrian burial place of famous spy Eli Cohen, the Times of Israel reported, citing a Lebanese media report.
Cohen, who was born in Egypt, infiltrated the highest ranks of the Syrian military in the 1960s and passed secrets to the Israeli government in what is remembered as one of the most successful intelligence operations in Israeli history.
Cohen was caught in 1965 and hanged in Damascus.
Separately, Israel launched a series of airstrikes targeting military sites in Damascus on Saturday, its latest effort to destroy Syrian military capabilities in an attempt to keep weapons from falling into the hands of hostile forces.
With Post wires
