British government is in talks with the Syrian opposition group that toppled the Assad regime
British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said that the British government has established “diplomatic contact” with the Syrian opposition group that overthrew the Assad regime.
Lammy said Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) was still a banned terrorist organisation, but the UK “could have diplomatic contact and we have diplomatic contact as expected”.
His US counterpart, Antony Blinken, said on Saturday that the US had established “direct contact” with HTS militants who took control of Syria.
Lammy’s comments came after the government announced a £50 million humanitarian aid package for vulnerable Syrians, including refugees in the region.
Speaking on Sunday, Lammy said: “We want to see a representative government, an inclusive government. We want stockpiles of chemical weapons to be secured and not used, and we want to ensure that violence does not continue.”
“For all these reasons, we are trying to deal with HTS as necessary, using all the channels we have, which are diplomatic and, of course, intelligence-oriented channels.”
Diplomatic contact with HTS does not mean that the Secretary of State is in personal contact with the rebel group.
Both the UK and the US have a vested interest in what happens next in Syria. Blinken told reporters on Saturday that U.S. interaction with HTS was specifically on the fate of missing American journalist Austin Tice.
Britain closed its embassy in Damascus in 2013, two years after Arab Spring protests began to be brutally repressed by the Assad regime.
Asked whether HTS could be removed from the UK’s list of banned terrorist organisations, the Foreign Secretary said the rebel group remained a banned organization spun out of Al Qaeda.
“Al Qaeda are responsible for a tremendous loss of life on British soil,” Lammy said, adding: “We will judge them [HTS] by their actions, I will not comment on future bans but of course we recognize this is an important moment for Syria.”
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said earlier this week that no decision had yet been made regarding the banned status of HTS.
Lammy said the promise of cash aid to the Middle Eastern country was realized following talks in Aqaba on Saturday.
At the summit hosted by Jordan, delegates from many countries agreed on the importance of a “non-sectarian and representative government”, the protection of human rights, unrestricted access for humanitarian aid, the safe destruction of chemical weapons and the fight against terrorism.
Representatives from the USA, France, Germany, the Arab Contact Group, Bahrain, Qatar, Türkiye, the United Arab Emirates, the EU and the UN attended the talks.
HTS did not attend the meeting in Jordan.
The UK announced that 30 million pounds will be transferred for food, shelter and emergency health services in Syria, 10 million pounds of which will go to the World Food Program (WFP) in Lebanon, and 10 million pounds will go to WFP in Jordan and the UN’s refugee agency, UNHCR. He announced that he would go to .
The British government said that in addition to £50 million in aid for Syrians in the region, £120,000 of Britain’s funding would be given to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to “free Syria from chemical weapons” and support the interim Syrian government.
The Home Office also suspended its decisions on asylum applications made by Syrians to the UK following the fall of the Assad regime.
Last week, HTS, along with its allied opposition groups, overthrew the Assad administration.
The Assad family ruled Syria for more than 50 years. Bashar al-Assad crushed a peaceful, pro-democracy uprising in 2011 and unleashed a civil war in which more than half a million people were killed and 12 million were forced to flee their homes.
New news has begun to come about the cruelty of the Assad regime and the suffering that has cost the lives of many Syrians.
But religious minorities in Syria and neighboring countries remain concerned about their future under HTS rule, given the Islamist militant group’s previous links to Al Qaeda.