US removes bounty from HTS leader’s head after diplomats visit Damascus

The US announced on Friday that Washington was removing the $10 million bounty offered for Hayat Tahrir Al Sham leader Ahmad Al Shara after a milestone meeting in Damascus.

Barbara Leaf, US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, emphasized during discussions with the de facto Syrian leader, “the critical need to ensure terrorist groups cannot pose a threat inside of Syria or externally, including to the US and our partners in the region”. She said that Al Shara had “committed to this”.

“Based on our discussion, I told him we would not be pursuing the Rewards for Justice, the reward offer that has been in effect for some years,” Leaf said during a briefing.

The announcement represents a diplomatic victory for Al Shara, who has dropped his nom de guerre, Abu Mohammed Al Julani, as he seeks to earn international recognition and moderate his reputation after leading HTS and other rebel groups in a blitz operation this month that toppled president Bashar Al Assad’s government.

The US has designated HTS as a terrorist group and Leaf emphasized that the lifting of Al Shara’s bounty was “a policy decision, aligned with the fact that we are beginning a discussion with HTS”.

She did not discuss any possible steps on the terror designation of HTS but, on the issue of sanctions relief, said more broadly that Washington would “continue to refine our approach as we see the needs, but obviously it’ll be a multilateral effort”.

The US official, leading Washington’s first delegation visit to Damascus in more than 12 years, met Syrian civil society groups and emphasized that she had heard “a very common theme of one Syria for one people and unity above all”.

She hinted that should the transitional government in Damascus move in the direction of “internal pressure” to shed sectarianism, such measures would be “consistent” with the requirements necessary for Washington to lift sanctions, including those outlined in the Caesar Act.

(Source: The Nation)