The British government has had “diplomatic contact” with the Syrian rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), who are now in control of the country after resting power from the ousted President Bashar al-Assad.
The UK’s Foreign Secretary confirmed the development and said that HTS remains a banned terrorist outfit but the UK “can have diplomatic contact and so we do have diplomatic contact, as you would expect”.
The United States on Saturday also confirmed that it had made “direct contact” with the HTS rebel group which has led the rebels’ uprising and are now in control of Damascus and most of Syria. Lammy’s counterpart in the US, Secretary of State Antony Blinken confirmed it.
The UK government also announced a £50m humanitarian aid for vulnerable Syrians, including the refugees as the region has witnessed a huge amount of migration.
Today I spoke with @SecBlinken to discuss our efforts with partners to support a more hopeful, secure and peaceful Syria. We have collectively agreed principles required to support a Syrian-led transitional political process.
— David Lammy (@DavidLammy) December 14, 2024
In a statement, Lammy said, “We want to see a representative government, an inclusive government. We want to see chemical weapons stockpiles secured, and not used, and we want to ensure that there is no continuing violence.”
He further added “For all of those reasons, using all the channels that we have available, and those are diplomatic and of course intelligence-led channels, we seek to deal with HTS where we have to,” as quoted by the BBC.
US’ Blinken told reporters that they were in contact with HTS for a specific purpose, in order to ascertain the fate of American journalist, Austin Tice.
Today, the United States and our partners in the region agreed on a set of shared principles to guide our support for Syria as it transitions to a new government.
We are ready to support the Syrian people as they chart a new path forward. pic.twitter.com/yvmQWj2mz3
— Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) December 15, 2024
Russia Evacuates Diplomats
Meanwhile, the Russian foreign ministry has said that it has evacuated some of the Russian, Belarusian and North Korean diplomatic personnel in Damascus via a special Russian air force flight from the Khmeimim air base in Syria.
The Russian foreign ministry said on its Telegram channel that “The work of the Russian Embassy in Damascus continues,” as reported by Reuters.
Russia’s state news agency RIA quoted the Belarusian foreign ministry and reported that all the Belarusian diplomats have been evacuated from Syria.
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