Diplomatic Sources: US And Assad Administration Meet In Secret

As the rapprochement efforts between Turkey and Syria continued, the news that US administration officials secretly met with the government of Bashar Assad became the agenda.

According to the news, which the Cradle site quotes a high-level Arab League diplomatic source, US and Syrian officials are holding secret talks in Oman. Security officials from the two countries and names from the Foreign Ministry are also said to have participated in the talks in Muscat.

In the news, it was noted that the Damascus administration pressured the US to withdraw from its territory, but US support for the Syrian Democratic Forces, whose backbone consists of the PKK/YPG, it was not on the agenda. It was also claimed that the fate of American journalist Austin Tice, who went missing in Damascus in 2012, was also discussed in the talks, with Syria stating that it did not know Tice’s location, but that the United States was skeptical.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said earlier this month that they were in contact with Syria and other countries to find Tice.

According to the sources, the secret talks on the Washington-Damascus line began when former US President Donald Trump was in power, but broke down in 2020 when Trump said he wanted to kill Assad. After Joe Biden became president, the news that the two countries came to the table multiple times through intermediaries had come to the fore before.

US OPPOSES Türkiye-SYRIA APPROACH

The United States has been making statements against the rapprochement between Damascus and Turkey and various Arab countries for a while. Making a statement on Turkey’s talks with the Syrian administration with the participation of Russia and Iran, the United States said it “will not normalize relations with the Assad regime without real progress toward finding a political solution to the fundamental conflict.” .

“We emphasize to our regional partners who are in contact with the Syrian regime that credible steps to improve the security and humanitarian situation for Syrians must be front and center in any contact,” the statement said. Washington also opposed Syria’s readmission to the Arab League.