The US finally decided to drop the $10 million bounty on HTS head Ahmed al-Sharaa, more commonly known as Abu Mohammad al-Jolani. This was immediately following a meeting in Damascus that US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf held with officials from HTS. Leaf had just described as very fruitful her discussions with the al-Sharaa about regional and domestic matters.
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As she stated, the priorities of al-Sharaa would revolve around Syria’s recovery from an economic angle. Their conversation, as Leaf put it, was wide-ranging and deep in arrangements through diverse subjects. She also concluded that al-Jolani seemed practical and bent on ensuring that terrorist organizations are not a threat, neither from within Syria nor from outside. It was the first meeting between THS members and US officials, coming after Bashar Assad fled to Russia from the rebel-controlled Damascus.
HTS purports to be a terrorist organization by the US, UK, UN, and Türkiye, trying to look like a less extremist group inside Syria. Reportedly, with this action, most of the countries are considering delisting it from the terror list; however, there has not been any official confirmation on this front. Besides that, Leaf talked about Türkiye’s influence in the region and the tensions in northeastern Syria. She also pointed to the need for a ceasefire and a managed transition concerning the SDF’s continued presence in the area. The reconstruction of Syria needs to be done with great care over its compliance with the Caesar Act.