US drops bounty for Syria's new leader after Damascus meeting

DAMASCUS: Washington is scrapping a long-standing reward for the arrest of Syria’s new leader, a senior U.S. diplomat said Friday, following “positive messages” from a first meeting that included a promise to fight terrorism.

Barbara Leaf, Washington’s top diplomat for the Middle East, made the comments after her meeting with Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus — the first formal mission to Syria’s capital by United States diplomats since the early days of Syria’s civil war.

The lightning offensive that toppled president Bashar al-Assad on December 8 was led by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which is rooted in Al-Qaeda’s Syria branch but has sought to moderate its image in recent years.

Leaf’s meeting with HTS chief Sharaa came despite Washington’s six-year-old designation of his group as a terrorist organisation.

“Based on our discussion, I told him we would not be pursuing the Rewards for Justice reward offer,” Leaf told reporters.

After their talks, “it’s a little incoherent, then, to have a bounty on the guy’s head,” she said, welcoming the messages from him.

“We will be looking for progress on these principles and actions, not just words,” she said.

After the meeting, a statement from Syria’s new leaders said they wanted to contribute to regional peace.

“The Syrian people stand at an equal distance from all countries and parties in the region… Syria rejects any polarisation,” the statement said.

Leaf said she told Sharaa of the “critical need to ensure terrorist groups cannot pose a threat inside of Syria or externally, including to the US and partners in the region.”

“Ahmed al-Sharaa committed to this,” she said.

The US delegation also included Roger Carstens, the US pointman on hostages. He said he worked on Friday with the new Syrian leadership to search a location where American journalist Austin Tice could have been held, and “we’ll be working with the interim authorities” to examine other locations. Tice was kidnapped in Syria in August 2012.

US strikes IS

The US military said on Friday its forces had killed an IS leader and another operative in Deir Ezzor province, part of escalated US military action against the group since Assad’s overthrow.

The US embassy said Leaf also met with Syria’s White Helmet rescuers, civil society leaders, activists and others “to hear directly from them about their vision for the future of their country”.

Turkish pressure

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who backed Assad’s opponents, has stressed reconciliation and restoration of Syria’s territorial integrity and unity.

Turkey has been putting pressure on Kurdish-led forces in Syria, and Erdogan said Friday it was time to destroy “terrorist” groups operating in the country, specifically IS and Kurdish fighters.

“Daesh, the PKK and their affiliates — which threaten the survival of Syria — must be eradicated,” he told journalists following a summit in Cairo, referring to IS and the Kurdistan Workers Party, respectively.

The autonomous administration in northeastern Syria is protected by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, mostly made up of the People’s Protection Units (YPG).

Turkey accuses the YPG of being a branch of the PKK, which both Washington and Ankara consider a terrorist group.

Kurdish leaders in Syria have welcomed Assad’s ouster and raised the three-star independence-era rebel flag, but many in the region fear continued attacks by Turkey and allied fighters.

Leaf said Washington was urging a ceasefire between Turkish-backed forces and the SDF around the Kurdish-held Syrian border town of Kobane, also known as Ain al-Arab.