The News
Senior US diplomats arrived in Damascus for their first talks with Syria’s new, de facto rulers since Bashar al-Assad’s overthrow earlier this month.
The meeting is one among several that Western powers are undertaking with a group — Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) — that many countries still list as a terrorist organization. It comes as Washington said it had more than doubled its troop presence in the country.
The rebels who ousted Assad have called for sanctions to be lifted and for economic support to flow, downplaying their Islamist roots while promising to uphold minority rights and ensure a fair justice system. The country’s potential progress, the UN secretary-general said, offers a “flame of hope” amidst the Middle East’s “many fires.”
SIGNALS
Syria to face ‘bumpy’ road ahead
Syria’s new interim government has made attractive promises to its people: Rebuilding the country’s infrastructure and economy, bringing former Assad facilitators to justice, and offering job vacancies to Syrians from all ethnic and religious backgrounds, to create a more “just and equitable future,” one HTS member told Al Jazeera. However, the leaders face significant hurdles. The country is still crippled by Western sanctions — which will form much of the focus of Friday’s talks — and the Islamic State group has a strong presence in the country’s northeastern region, where they have carried out nearly 700 attacks since January, a Middle East analyst wrote for The New York Times. “At this precarious moment in Syria’s history, urgent steps are required to ensure that progress is not lost,” he added.
Foreign powers vie for influence in Syria
The arrival of US diplomats in Syria signals the priority foreign powers are placing on building strong ties with the new leadership: Britain and France have reopened diplomatic channels, and Israel is trying to expand its control over the disputed Golan Heights. “Assad’s flight to Moscow signals the demise of the ideology of anti-Western, anti-Israel resistance in the Middle East,” an analyst told The Washington Post, noting that with longtime Assad-backer Iran significantly weakened, Israel is the new “agenda-setter.” However, Turkish-backed rebel groups have long had a presence in Damascus and northeastern Syria, where fighting continues. There is potential for tensions to come to a head: “The rival ambitions of [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan and [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu could easily clash in Syria,” another analyst told the outlet.