Senior US officials meet with HTS leader during first trip to Syria after fall of Assad

Senior US officials met with the head of “Hayat Tahrir al-Sham” (HTS) on Friday during their first trip to Syria since the fall of the Assad regime last week, officials familiar with the meeting told Al Arabiya English.

One official said that a press conference was canceled due to security concerns.

Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf, Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs, Ambassador Roger Carstens, and NEA Senior Advisor Daniel Rubinstein were part of the first American diplomats to visit since Assad fled Damascus.

Ahmad al-Sharaa, also known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, the leader of HTS, is designated by the US and has a $10 million bounty on him. It is unclear whether or not the US will revoke this designation and remove the HTS from its terror blacklist.

Celebratory protests were planned in an area where the US diplomats needed to pass through to leave the country, leading security officials to scrap the press briefing. The US delegation has left Syria and is in Jordan, officials said.

Separately, the US military killed two ISIS operatives on Thursday, including its leader in Deir Ezzor, in an area formerly controlled by Russia and the Assad regime. “ISIS has intent to break out of detention over 8,000 ISIS operatives currently being held in facilities in Syria,” the head of the US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement. This is at least the third publicly claimed operation against ISIS by the US since the fall of the Assad regime. Washington has serious concerns about ISIS regrouping and reviving its terrorist activities. Meanwhile, Turkish operations against the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have raised eyebrows and increased worries about the campaign to defeat ISIS.