{"id":282785,"date":"2024-12-23T12:00:27","date_gmt":"2024-12-23T12:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=282785"},"modified":"2024-12-17T07:10:16","modified_gmt":"2024-12-17T07:10:16","slug":"blinken-confirms-the-us-is-in-direct-contact-with-al-qaeda-linked-hts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2024\/12\/blinken-confirms-the-us-is-in-direct-contact-with-al-qaeda-linked-hts\/","title":{"rendered":"Blinken Confirms the US Is in Direct Contact with al-Qaeda-linked HTS"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Terrorist Abu Mohammad al-Julani is the head of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, labeled a Terrorist Organization by the USA.\u00a0\u00a0 Enab Baladi<\/p><\/div>\n

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham Is Designated by the US as a Terrorist Organization <\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

15 Dec 2024 – <\/em>Secretary of State Antony Blinken said yesterday<\/a> that the US has been in direct contact with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a US-designated terror organization that grew out of al-Qaeda in Syria and recently led the offensive that overthrew former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, we have been in contact with HTS and with other parties,\u201d Blinken said on Saturday, confirming earlier reports <\/a>that said the US was talking to HTS. \u201cOur message to the Syrian people is this: We want them to succeed, and we\u2019re prepared to help them do so.\u201d<\/p>\n

HTS and its leader, Abu Mohammad al-Julani, are overseeing the new \u201ctransitional\u201d government in Syria. Blinken and other US officials have celebrated the ouster of Assad and made clear they\u2019re willing to work with Julani despite his past as an ISIS and al-Qaeda leader.<\/p>\n

Julani, who has been going by his real name, Ahmad al-Sharaa, has been presenting himself as a moderate in an effort to gain support from the West and began a rebranding campaign in 2016 by claiming his former group, the al-Nusra Front, was cutting ties with al-Qaeda. At the time, he thanked the<\/a> \u201ccommanders of al-Qaeda for having understood the need to break ties.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2017, Julani merged his group with several other Islamist factions to form Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which the US State Department designated as a foreign terrorist organization in 2018. The US also placed a $10 million bounty on Julani\u2019s head.<\/p>\n

The Biden administration is reportedly considering removing the terror designation from HTS<\/a>, which would allow the US to provide significant aid to an HTS-led government. Blinken released a statement a few days ago outlining conditions for US support.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe United States reaffirms its full support for a Syrian-led and Syrian-owned political transition. This transition process should lead to credible, inclusive, and non-sectarian governance that meets international standards of transparency and accountability,\u201d Blinken said.<\/p>\n

While the US is flexible with HTS\u2019s designation, it frequently points to the terror designations of groups like Hamas and Hezbollah to justify Israeli attacks that slaughter huge numbers of civilians.<\/p>\n

___________________________________________<\/p>\n

Dave DeCamp is the news editor of<\/em> antiwar.com.<\/p>\n

Go to Original – news.antiwar.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

15 Dec 2024 – Hayat Tahrir al-Sham Is Designated by the US as a Terrorist Organization<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":282787,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[3407,703,2996,2446,413,70,2686,492],"class_list":["post-282785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-anglo-america","tag-abu-mohammed-al-jolani","tag-al-qaeda","tag-antony-blinken","tag-bashar-al-assad","tag-syria","tag-usa","tag-war-of-terror","tag-war-on-terror"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282785"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282785\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":282788,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282785\/revisions\/282788"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}