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A press conference scheduled to be held by the US ambassador to Syria following a meeting with the country’s new leadership has been canceled due to “security concerns”, the US embassy said.
A US official did not confirm what the concerns were, or whether the diplomats had met with the country’s new ruler, Ahmed al-Sharaa. They said instead a short meeting will be held on Friday.
A short time later, the US military said it had killed the leader of the Islamic State (IS) in an airstrike in Syria.
A US delegation arrived in the capital Damascus to meet with representatives from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which toppled Bashar al-Assad’s government less than two days ago but which Washington still designates as a terrorist group.
The visit is the first appearance of the American embassy in Damascus in more than a decade.
It is another sign of the great changes taking place in Syria since the ouster of Assad, and the acceleration of US and European efforts, and the leaning of the Arab world, to try to influence his emerging regime.
The visit follows recent delegations from the UN and other countries including the UK, France and Germany.
The official delegation includes Secretary of State Barbara Leaf, Roger Carstens, who is the representative of US President Joe Biden and Daniel Rubinstein, senior adviser in the Bureau of Near East Affairs.
“They have been communicating directly with the Syrian people, including members of the civil society, activists, people of color, and other Syrian voices about their vision for the future of their country and how the United States can help them,” Gov. A department spokesman said in an earlier statement.
The meeting is a sign that it is ready to deal with HTS, which the US says is a terrorist group but urges it to change to a more inclusive, non-sectarian government.
Washington is putting a number of factors before it decides to withdraw the group – a key step that could help ease the path to the relief Damascus so desperately wants.
Authorities are seeking information to help find American journalist Austin Tice, who was kidnapped in Damascus in 2012.
Meanwhile, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) confirmed that IS leader Abu Yusif and two of his associates were killed in an airstrike in the Dayr az Zawr region of northeastern Syria.
It said in a statement on Friday that the airstrike began on Thursday and took place in an area formerly controlled by the Assad regime and Russian forces supporting his government.
The head of CENTCOM, General Michael Erik Kurilla, said that the US would not allow IS to “take advantage of the situation in Syria and reestablish itself”, adding that the group wanted to release more than 8,000 terrorists held in Syria.
