U.S. delegation arrives in Syrian capital for first meetings since Assad's fall

WASHINGTON — Senior U.S. officials arrived in Damascus on Friday for the first diplomatic mission to the Syrian capital since the fall of dictator Bashar al-Assad this month.

The U.S. delegation, led by Barbara Leaf, the senior State Department official for the Middle East, is expected to meet with members of the Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) rebel group, according to a State Department spokesperson. The group is acting as the de facto government in Syria.

Those discussions are expected to focus on expectations for a transition to an inclusive Syrian government and the “hope to uncover information about the fate of Austin Tice, Majd Kamalmaz, and other American citizens who disappeared under the Assad regime,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

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Roger Carstens, the special presidential envoy for hostage affairs, who traveled to Damascus in 2020 for secret negotiations about Tice during the first Trump administration, is also a part of the delegation.

In addition to HTS, the diplomats will meet with members of civil society, activists, members of different communities and other Syrians “about their vision for the future of their country and how the United States can help support them,” the spokesperson said. 

Daniel Rubinstein, a senior adviser for the State Department’s Middle East bureau, will lead the department’s diplomatic engagement on Syria, according to the spokesperson, and will “engage directly with the Syrian people and key parties in Syria and coordinate with allies and partners.” 

Since Assad's ouster, the Biden administration has come under increasing pressure to put U.S. personnel on the ground to participate in the search for Tice, who was abducted in Syria 12 years ago.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday the United States was in touch with “every possible actor who might be able to get information. And this involves anyone and everyone who has some relationship with the different rising authorities in Syria.”

“Any piece of information we get, any lead we have, we’re following it. We have ways of doing that irrespective of exactly where we are,” Blinken said in an interview on MSNBC’s "Morning Joe." “And I can just tell you that this is the No. 1 priority is to get Austin.”

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The U.S. delegation's visit follows visits by diplomats from France, the U.K. and Germany to Damascus this week as the leader of HTS, Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, calls for the lifting of international sanctions on him and the rebel group.

HTS remains a U.S.-designated terrorist group with a $10 million bounty on Jolani. The sanctions do not prevent the U.S. delegation from meeting or speaking with HTS, but it restricts the provision of material support creating complications for humanitarian aid groups working to assist both the refugees flooding back to their home country and those displaced within it for the last decade. 

The Biden administration is exploring removing HTS from its terrorist list, NBC News has reported, but the administration has also laid out a list of conditions it must meet before the United States would formally recognize the Syrian government.

“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, like all governments, it needs to preserve critical state institutions and deliver essential services,” deputy State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel said Thursday. “And perhaps most important, we want to see a Syria that does not pose a threat to its neighbors or the regions or being a place that’s going to serve as a base for terrorism or allying with groups like ISIS.”