US secretary of state Antony Blinken said that the United States has had direct contact with rebel faction Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which led the offensive that overthrew Syria's president Bashar al-Assad.
The United States said it has made contact with Syria's victorious Hayat Tahrir al-Sham rebels. Secretary of state Antony Blinken's comment on "direct contact" with the HTS rebels came despite the US having designated the group as terrorists in 2018. Blinken is the first US official to publicly confirm contacts between the Biden administration and HTS, which led a coalition of armed opposition groups that ousted Assad from power last Sunday .
In an interview Saturday on Syrian television, the group's leader, Ahmad al-Sharaa, formerly known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani, did not address any direct contact with the United States, but said the new authorities in Damascus, the capital, are in touch with Western embassies.
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