U.S. Diplomats don’t care that Ahmad al-Sharaa has a $10 million dollar price on his head. Just because he’s wanted dead or alive is no reason not to do business with him, Antony Blinken shrugs. After all, don’t they work for Joe Biden? One criminal is the same to work with as another, as long as the paycheck cashes.
Diplomats visit Damascus
Antony Blinken wasn’t about to risk setting foot in Damascus, so he sent assistant diplomats. U.S. State Department officials had a little get together on Friday with Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham’s leader. There was only one little snag. Ahmad al-Sharaa is a wanted man with a price on his head and we’re the ones who posted the reward.
He’s worth $10 million, dead or alive. Our assistant secretary of state for near east affairs, Barbara Leaf, “made clear” Uncle Sam won’t “pursue” enforcement of his bounty. For now.
Al-Sharaa, A.K.A. Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, is on the international terrorist watch list. He also happens to be the one who “led the Syrian revolution that toppled the Assad regime.”
We may not like it, the diplomats admit, but the situation makes it necessary to do a little business with Al-Sharaa and the HTS. They’re a known Al-Queda offshoot, listed as a confirmed terror group. They’re also just a little bit tamer than Russia and Iran, who had been running Syria through Assad.
As a show of good faith, HTS has agreed to tone down the terrorism. After the meeting, described by Leaf as “good and productive,” the team of diplomats announced that the new regime “committed to not allowing terror groups to operate in Syria and threaten the U.S. or neighboring countries.”
In return, she promised not to have Al-Sharaa shot or arrested. Not until the have a chance to work out “a range of regional issues.” As Leaf explains, “If we are having a discussion it is incoherent to have a bounty on his head.” Long term, there’s a possibility that domestic stability in Syria could result in a change in his status. She couldn’t make any firm promises on that because it will be up to Trump’s foreign policy team after January 20.
Road to recovery
It seems that the big motivating factor for Al-Sharaa and HTS is the possibility of scoring some American foreign aid. They can play nice, the terrorists insist, when there’s money to feed starving peasants and rebuild all the infrastructure.
“I heard him on his priorities, which are very much rooted in getting Syria on the road to economic recovery,” Leaf relates. The diplomats were anxious to get out of the area as soon as the meeting was over. They were supposed to hold a press conference but decided to hold it from a more stable nation.
After the announcement was made that the team canceled their press conference due to “security concerns,” the diplomats were quick to issue a statement toning down that sort of language. It wasn’t a “security” matter, they claim. There was simply too big a crowd “rejoicing” in the city for them to get their motorcades through, in time to catch their flight out.
They left out the fact that the crowd’s favorite way of rejoicing is shooting firearms in the air. While small arms are the most popular, they don’t mind launching a few rockets or grenades in celebration. It’s the Syrian version of fireworks.
The rebel leader appeared during talks to be “pragmatic.” Al-Sharaa “expressed moderate positions on women’s and minority rights.” Talking to a woman who could have him dragged away and collect $10 million for it made him especially polite.
The diplomats were relieved that the rebels seemed more pliable than the Taliban, when they took over Afghanistan at the start of Joe Biden’s administration but we still don’t really trust them. Leaf “stressed” it was a good first meeting “but we will judge by deeds and not only by words.“
