Published December 20,2024
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Three senior US diplomats have arrived within the Syrian capital Damascus to fulfill the nation’s present leaders and likewise attempt to find journalist Austin Tice and different lacking US residents within the wake of the Assad regime’s fall, the State Department mentioned.
“We have been in touch, in contact, with all the groups in Syria, including HTS (Hayat Tahrir al-Sham),” division spokesperson Vedant Patel informed a Thursday news briefing, referring to the group that spearheaded the latest opposition offensive resulting in Bashar Assad’s fall.
“We have once again and will continue to stress upon everybody that we have an importance of doing everything we can to find missing US citizens, including Austin Tice, and bringing them home,” he added.
Freelance journalist Tice, a former US marine, was kidnapped in Darayya, Syria in 2012.
On the diplomatic trio’s go to, a division assertion mentioned Assistant Secretary of State Barbara Leaf, Special Hostage Envoy Roger Carstens, and Special Adviser on Syria Daniel Rubinstein “will be engaging directly with the Syrian people, including members of civil society, activists, members of different communities and other Syrian voices about their vision for the future of their country and how the United States can help support them.”
The division mentioned that the diplomats intend to have interaction with HTS to debate the “transition principles” that have been agreed upon by American, Arab, and Turkish officers throughout a gathering final weekend in Aqaba, Jordan.
US officers have underlined the significance of Syrian teams creating an inclusive governance course of that ensures the honest remedy of all ethnic and spiritual minorities, together with Christians.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken “stressed quite clearly the transition principles that have been the cornerstone of our ongoing diplomatic engagements, principles that now have been taken up by countries throughout the region and well beyond that,” mentioned Patel.
“Our view is that when whatever government arises out of this transition, it needs to be inclusive, it needs to protect the rights of all Syrians, including women and minorities.”
Expressing Washington’s want that Syria not threaten its neighbors or “serve as a base for terrorism” or ally with terrorist teams like Deash/ISIS, Patel mentioned Damascus is a member of the Chemical Weapons Convention.
“Like all governments, it needs to preserve critical state institutions and deliver essential services,” Patel mentioned.
Bashar Assad, Syria’s chief for practically 25 years, fled to Russia after anti-regime teams took management of Damascus on Dec. 8, ending the Baath Party regime, which had been in energy since 1963.
Source: www.anews.com.tr