For the first time in twelve years, a senior US official has entered Damascus. The paradox occurs that President Joe Biden has sent an influential advisor of his to meet with those who currently control parts of Syria, despite the fact that American diplomacy and justice continue to consider them a terrorist group. The White House’s priority is to obtain the collaboration of the rebels led by Abu Mohamed al Jolani, known as Ahmed al Sharaa, to free American citizens held in the region, especially journalist Austin Tice, who disappeared in 2012. In exchange, The US federal government would be willing to consider a possible normalization of relations and the lifting of sanctions. To remove Al Jolani from the US terrorist list, the process must be initiated by the State Department, which would evaluate if you no longer meet the designation criteria. This requires clear evidence of a change in behaviour, such as cessation of terrorist activities and severing ties with extremist organisations. Intelligence agencies would analyze the situation and, if approved, Congress would be notified before making the decision official. In the case of Al Jolani, his history and ties to Al Qaeda complicate the process, but clear cooperation in freeing hostages and normalizing relations would be decisive. Related News The new standard Syrian government If the US will remove the new Syrian leader from the list of global terrorism Francisco de Andrés A North American delegation negotiates the conditions in DamascusMissions impossibleWho is now in Damascus is Roger Carstens, President Biden’s special envoy for the release of hostages. He is an expert in impossible missions and, in fact, he even went to meet with the dictator of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, to obtain the release of American prisoners last year. Barbara Leaf, who is the State Department’s top diplomat for the Middle East, accompanied Carstens to Damascus as a gesture of broader outreach to Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS), the armed group he commands that overthrew the Al Assad regime. It was Barack Obama’s government that broke relations with the Syrian dictatorship in 2012, after the brutal repression of an internal revolt. Since then, the White House has turned to intermediaries for any management related to Syria, leaving it up to Russia and Iran to sustain a regime that has now just collapsed. For their part, Al Jolani and his group have chosen to reinvent themselves, trying to leave their jihadist origins behind. They promise to build a secular state free of extremism, although caution prevails in the United States before moving towards normalization of relations. Jolani himself still has a $10 million State Department reward, a clear reminder of his origins. In fact, the United States formally designated HTS as a foreign terrorist organization in 2018 due to its ties to Al Qaeda. Its leader, Al Jolani, was designated as a terrorist in 2013 and was previously imprisoned in a US prison in Iraq, as a jihadist. As an initial gesture, the American convoy received assurances this Friday that it would have safe passage while in Syria, although the threat of attacks from other terrorist groups always remains, including the Islamic State, which has its own ambitions in the area. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Bloomberg on Thursday: “We have heard positive statements from Mr. Jolani, the leader of HTS. But what really matters is what is happening on the ground. What are they doing? Are they working to build a transition in Syria that includes everyone?
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