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The United States may be softening its stance on Syria, after leading efforts to overthrow the government of President Bashar al-Assad for more than 12 years.
On May 4, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the U.S. is “engaged with Syria” to try to bring missing journalist Austin Tice home.
Tice, a former U.S. Marine Corps infantry officer, went missing while he was covering the battles in the outskirts of the Syrian capital, Damascus, in August of 2012. The freelance journalist was reportedly moving with local rebels. He was 31 at the time.
President Joe Biden said last August that Washington knows “with certainty” that Tice has at times been held by the Syrian government. However, Damascus has denied kidnapping or holding the man.
“We are extensively engaged with regard to Austin, engaged with Syria, engaged with third countries, seeking to find a way to get him home. And we’re not going to relent until we do,” Blinken said in remarks at a Washington Post event on World Press Freedom Day.
Washington suspended its diplomatic presence in Syria in 2012, then led the political, military and economic efforts to overthrow the al-Assad government.
In 2020 under the Trump administration, Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs Roger Carstens secretly traveled to Damascus and met with Syrian officials to discuss the Tice case. Two years later, the Biden administration made direct engagements with the al-Assad government over the case.
The Wall Street Journal reported on May 3 that Washington has renewed direct talks with Syria over Tice’s case and those of other Americans, citing Middle East officials familiar with the efforts.
The renewed talks came amid a rapprochement between Syria and several Arab countries, including key regional allies of the U.S. like Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
The foreign ministers of Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Iraq held a meeting with their Syrian counterpart in the Jordanian capital, Amman on May 1, and discussed Damascus suspended membership in the Arab league, the humanitarian situation in the war-torn country and the political settlement.
The U.S., which voiced opposition to rapprochement with al-Assad government on multiple occasions in the last few years, said that it was “encouraged” by the meeting in Amman.
A White House National Security Council representative told The National on May 2 that the Biden administration was “encouraged to see the joint communique mention many priorities that we and our partners share”.
“We sincerely hope that the Syrian regime will follow through on its commitments, in good faith and in accordance with international norms,” the official said.
The U.S. maintains strict sanctions against Syria and keeps some 900 troops in key oil and gas fields in the country’s northeastern region as well as in a garrison blocking a strategic highway between Damascus and the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, in the southeastern region.
While the recent developments do not represent any major shift in the U.S. stance on Syria, they indicate that Washington has begun to acknowledge that the country can’t be isolated and that al-Assad has de-facto won the war.
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