Roger Carstens, the Biden administration’s top official for the release of Americans held abroad, arrived in Damascus, Syria, on Friday for a risky mission: making the first known face-to-face contact with the transitional government and asking for help questions when finding missing American journalist Austin Tice.
Tice was kidnapped in Syria twelve years ago during Syria’s civil war and brutal rule The now deposed Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. U.S. officials have said for years that they do not know for certain whether Tice is still alive, where he is being held or by whom.
The State Department’s top diplomat for the Middle East, Barbara Leaf, assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs, accompanied Carstens to Damascus in a gesture of broader outreach to the Middle East. Hay’at Tahrir al-Shamknown as HTS, the rebel group that recently overthrew the Assad regime and is emerging as a leading power.
Senior Near Eastern Advisor Daniel Rubinstein was also with the delegation. They are the first American diplomats to visit Damascus in more than a decade, according to a State Department spokesperson.
They plan to meet with HTS representatives to discuss the transition principles endorsed by the US and regional partners in Aqaba, Jordan, the spokesperson said. Secretary of State Antony Blinken traveled to Aqaba last week to meet with Middle Eastern leaders and discuss the situation in Syria.
While finding and freeing Tice and other American citizens who had disappeared the Assad regime is the ultimate goal, U.S. officials are downplaying expectations of a breakthrough on this trip. Multiple sources told CBS News that Carstens and Leaf’s intention is to convey U.S. interests to senior HTS leaders, and learn everything they can about Tice.
Rubinstein will lead U.S. diplomacy in Syria and work directly with the Syrian people and key parties in Syria, the State Department spokesperson added.
Diplomatic assistance to HTS comes at an uncertain time in a volatile, war-torn region. Two sources even compared the potential danger to the expeditionary diplomacy of the late U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, who led rebels in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012 and was killed in a terrorist attack on a U.S. diplomatic compound and intelligence post.
U.S. special operations forces, known as JSOC, provided the delegation’s security as they traveled by vehicle across the Jordanian border en route to Damascus. The convoy was assured by HTS that it would be given safe passage during its stay in Syria, but the threat of attacks by other terrorist groups, including ISIS, remains.
CBS News withheld publication of this story at the request of the State Department due to security concerns.
Sending high-level US diplomats to Damascus marks an important step in reopening US-Syria relations after the fall of the Assad regime less than two weeks ago. Operations at the US Embassy in Damascus have been suspended since 2012, shortly after the Assad regime brutally suppressed an uprising that turned into a 14-year civil war and prompted 13 million Syrians to flee the country in one of the country’s worst humanitarian disasters in the world.
The US formally designated HTS, which had ties to Al Qaeda, as a foreign terrorist organization in 2018. Its leader, Mohammed al Jolani, was designated a terrorist by the US in 2013 and previously served time in an American prison in Iraq. .
Since the overthrow of Assad, HTS has publicly expressed interest in a new, more moderate trajectory. Al Jolani even shed his name of the war and now uses his official name, Ahmed al-Sharaa.
U.S. sanctions against HTS related to these terrorist designations are somewhat complicating relief efforts, but they have not stopped U.S. officials from contacting HTS directly at President Biden’s direction. Blinken recently confirmed that US officials had been in contact with HTS representatives prior to Carstens and Leaf’s visit.
“We have heard positive statements from Mr. Jolani, the leader of HTS,” Blinken told Bloomberg News on Thursday. “But what everyone is focusing on is what is actually happening on the ground, what are they doing? Are they working on a transition in Syria that involves everyone?”
In that same interview, Blinken also appeared to dismiss the possibility that the US could help lift United Nations sanctions on HTS and its leader if HTS builds what he called an inclusive, non-sectarian government and eventually holds elections . The Biden administration is not expected to revoke the US terrorist designation before the end of the president’s term on January 20.
Pentagon spokesperson Pat Ryder announced Thursday that the U.S. currently has about 2,000 American troops in Syria as part of the mission to defeat ISIS, a much higher number than the 900 troops the Biden administration had previously acknowledged. There are at least five US military bases in the north and south of the country.
The Biden administration is concerned about that thousands of ISIS prisoners held in a camp known as al-Hol could be released. It is currently guarded by the Syrian Democratic Forces, Kurdish allies of the US who are wary of the newly powerful HTS. The situation on the ground is changing rapidly since Russia and Iran withdrew military support from the Assad regime, restoring the balance of power. Turkey, which has sometimes been a problematic US ally, has been a conduit for HTS and is emerging as a power broker.
A high-risk mission like this is unusual for the generally risk-averse Biden administration, which has consistently practiced low-key diplomacy. Blinken approved Carstens and Leaf’s trip and relevant congressional leaders were informed about it days ago.
“I think it’s important to have direct communication, it’s important to speak as clearly as possible, to listen, to make sure that we understand as best as possible where they’re going and where they want to go,” Blinken said Thursday .
At one press conference On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in Moscow that he had not yet met Assad, who fled to Russia when his regime fell earlier this month. Putin added that he would ask Assad about Austin Tice when they meet.
Tice, a Marine Corps veteran, worked for multiple news organizations, including CBS News.
