ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is set to visit Turkey on Friday to discuss developments in Syria post-Assad with Ankara authorities.
Blinken will visit Ankara on Friday, according to state-run Anadolu Agency, citing an official source.
The US official’s visit to Ankara will come just three days after the fall of Assad who was ousted in a major rebel offensive.
The US currently has over 900 troops based in Syria who provide military support to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS).
Blinken’s Friday visit comes as the US on Tuesday brokered a ceasefire between Kurdish-led SDF forces and Turkey-backed Syrian opposition groups who controlled the city of Manbij from the earlier’s control following heavy clashes.
Anti-government groups spearheaded by the HTS on Sunday took over the Syrian capital city of Damascus after nearly a two-week offensive, sending Assad fleeing and ending over two decades of his rule and half a century of the Baath party rule in the country.
Now that HTS has taken control of power, the US government says it may consider removing the ruling rebel group from its designated terrorist list.
"What I will say is all of our sanctions are imposed in response to actions that parties take, and they are designed to be an incentive to different courses of actions, and that is true for organizations; it is true for countries. And so we always want to see groups that we have sanctioned take a different path moving forward,” Matthew Miller, spokesperson of the US Department of State, told The New Region.
The HTS has been designated as a terrorist organization by the US, UK, the United Nations, and other Western nations. The group emerged as a dominant player after it toppled the Syrian regime.
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