The White House is focusing on next steps in Syria, including engaging with groups in the country, speaking to regional leaders and maintaining the efforts against ISIS.
A senior administration official said the US will be “engaging with the broad spectrum of Syrian society, opposition groups, groups on the ground in Syria exile groups. We have broad contacts, and we built up over the course of over the past decade and even beyond.”
The engagement is set “to establish and help wherever we can a transition away from the Assad regime towards an independent, sovereign Syria that can serve the interests of all Syrians under the rule of law.”
HTS, a coalition that was a major coalition of the toppling of regime, was designated by the US as a foreign terrorist group in 2018. The official said the US has been “watching very closely” and is seeing if the statements made by rebel leaders “are translated into actions on the ground.”
Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, who heads HTS, declared victory for the “entire Islamic nation” on Sunday, in his first public remarks since the rebel-led coup, which he said “marks a new chapter in the history of the region.”