Roger Carstens, the Biden administration’s top official for the release of Americans detained abroad, arrived in Damascus, Syria, on Friday on a high-risk mission: making the first known face-to-face contact with the interim government and ask for help in finding American journalist Austin Tice, missing.
Tice was kidnapped in Syria 12 years ago during the civil war and brutal rule of Bashar al-Assad, now deposed Syrian dictator. For years, U.S. officials have said they are uncertain whether Tice is still alive, where he is being held and 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 as part of a broader outreach to Hay’at Tahrir al-Shamknown as HTS, the rebel group that recently toppled the Assad regime and is emerging as a leading power.
Senior Middle East Advisor Daniel Rubinstein was also part of 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 transition principles approved by the United States and regional partners in Aqaba, Jordan, the spokesperson said. Secretary of State Antony Blinken went to Aqaba last week to meet with Middle East leaders and discuss the situation in Syria.
While finding and freeing Tice and other missing American citizens under 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 was to convey U.S. interests to senior HTS leaders and learn everything they could about Tice.
Rubinstein will lead U.S. diplomacy in Syria, engaging directly with the Syrian people and key Syrian parties, the State Department spokesperson added.
The diplomatic outreach to HTS comes in an unstable, war-torn region at an uncertain time. Two sources even likened the potential danger to the expeditionary diplomacy practiced by the late U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, who conducted outreach to rebels in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012 and was killed in a terrorist attack on a compound diplomatic and an American intelligence post.
U.S. special operations forces known as JSOC provided security for the delegation as it traveled by vehicle across the Jordanian border and on the road to Damascus. The convoy received assurances from HTS that it would have safe passage while in Syria, but the threat of attacks by other terrorist groups, including ISIS, remains.
CBS News declined publication of this article for security reasons at the request of the State Department.
Sending high-level U.S. diplomats to Damascus represents an important step in reopening U.S.-Syrian relations following the fall of the Assad regime less than two weeks ago. Operations at the U.S. 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 caused 13 million Syrians to flee the country in one of the greatest humanitarian disasters in the world.
The United States officially 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 United States in 2013 and had previously served time in an American prison in Iraq. .
Since Assad’s overthrow, HTS has publicly expressed interest in a new, more moderate trajectory. Al Jolani even got rid of his nom de guerre and now uses his legal name, Ahmed al-Sharaa.
U.S. sanctions against HTS related to these terrorist designations make outreach somewhat difficult, but they have not stopped U.S. officials from engaging directly with HTS under President Biden. Blinken recently confirmed that U.S. officials were in contact with representatives of HTS ahead of 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 focused on is what’s actually happening on the ground, what are they doing? Are they working to build a transition in Syria that brings everyone together?”
In that same interview, Blinken also appeared to hint at the possibility that the United States could help lift United Nations sanctions against HTS and its leader, if HTS built what he called an inclusive and non-sectarian government. finally organized elections. The Biden administration is not expected to lift the U.S. terrorist designation until the end of the presidential term on January 20.
Pentagon spokesman Pat Ryder revealed Thursday that the United States currently has about 2,000 American troops in Syria as part of the mission to defeat ISIS, a number far higher than the 900 troops that the Biden administration had previously recognized. There are at least five US military bases in the north and south of the country.
The Biden administration is concerned that thousands of ISIS prisoners detained in a camp known as al-Hol could be released. It is currently guarded by Syrian Democratic forces, Kurdish allies of the United States, who are wary of the newly powerful HTS. The situation on the ground has been evolving rapidly since Russia and Iran withdrew military support from the Assad regime, restoring the balance of power. Turkey, which has been a sometimes problematic ally of the United States, has served as a conduit to HTS and is becoming a power broker.
A high-risk mission like this is unusual for the generally risk-averse Biden administration, which has exercised consistently restrained diplomacy. Blinken approved Carstens and Leaf’s trip and relevant congressional leaders were briefed a few 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 we understand as best we can where they are going and where they want to go” , Blinken said Thursday.
To a press conference In Moscow on Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he had not yet met with Assad, who fled to Russia when his regime fell earlier this month. Putin added that he would ask Assad about Austin Tice during their meeting.
Tice, a Marine Corps veteran, has worked for several news organizations, including CBS News.
Marguerite Brennan
