The US is considering removing the al-Qaeda offshoot Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) from the list of US-designated terror organizations after the group led the offensive that ousted former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The Washington Post reported that US officials are in contact with HTS and other groups involved in the offensive. One US official said the Biden administration was doing a “real-time assessment” on whether or not HTS should be removed from the list of foreign terrorist organizations.
POLITICO reported there is a “furious debate” among US officials about the issue. “There is a huge scramble to see if, and how, and when we can delist HTS,” one official said.
HTS’s leader, Abu Mohammad al-Julani, also has a $10 million US bounty on his head. Middle East Eye reported that US officials are debating the “merit” of keeping the bounty in place. An Arab official told the outlet that the debate has divided the Biden administration.
Julani was the founder of al-Nusra Front, the al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria. In 2016, Julani attempted to rebrand al-Nusra by changing its name and claiming to cut ties with al-Qaeda. In 2017, HTS was formed by merging al-Nusra and several other Islamist groups.
Julani is now portraying himself as a moderate, and President Biden has said he likes what he’s hearing from the former al-Qaeda leader. “We’ve taken notes of statements by leaders of this revolution in recent days, and they’re saying the right things now, but as they take on greater responsibility, we will assess not just their words but their actions,” Biden said on Sunday in a speech celebrating the overthrow of Assad.
Removing HTS from the terror list could allow the US to provide significant aid to an HTS-led government. Reports on Monday said that Mohammed al-Bashir, who was the prime minister of the HTS-led Salvation Government in Idlib, has been appointed as the new prime minister of Syria.
The prime minister who served under Assad, Mohammed al-Jalali, met with Julani on Monday to discuss a “transfer of power.” Jalali has said he would cooperate with HTS, and the head of Assad’s Baath party also released a statement backing a “transitional phase in Syria.”
