Tuesday, December 10, 2024
Year : 2, Issue: 15
Anadolu Agency: The US is currently not reviewing the terrorist designation of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a leading group in the downfall of Syria’s Assad regime, but future changes remain possible, the State Department said Monday.
“We are always reviewing our sanctions posture with entities based on their actions, so when entities take different actions, of course, there could be a change in our sanctions posture,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters.
“There can be a change in our sanctions posture, but we have nothing new to announce today,” he added.
HTS has been designated as a terrorist organization by the US, UK, UN and Türkiye.
“We have heard some hopeful statements out of HTS. We have heard them saying the right things about inclusion and a political process forward. But ultimately, we’re going to judge them by their actions, and our policy response will be determined by the actions they take,” Miller said.
– US doesn’t rule out engagement with HTS
He added that the US has a number of ways of communicating, sometimes directly, sometimes with intermediaries, with various groups either inside Syria or outside Syria.
“We have been engaging in those conversations over the past few days. The Secretary himself has been engaged in conversations with countries that have influence inside Syria,” Miller said, declining to get into the details of the conversations.
