(December 2, 2024)
US officials have not been shy in the past about their preference for HTS and its leader, Abu Mohammad al-Julani, over other factions in Syria. James Jeffrey, an American diplomat who served as a special envoy to Syria under the Trump administration from 2018-2020, said in a 2021 interview that HTS was “an asset” to the US’s strategy in Idlib, a northwestern Syrian province that’s been under HTS control since 2017.
Joel Rayburn, currently deputy assistant secretary and special envoy for Syria, will take on the responsibilities of engagement with Syria.
Ambassador Nathan Sales, the coordinator for counterterrorism, will take on the role of special envoy for the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS.
NATO member countries, particularly Europeans, must act together to provide support to Turkey to confront the difficulties arising from the Syrian conflict, James Jeffrey, the U.S. special envoy for Syria, has said at the International Idlib Conference in Istanbul.
He was responding to a question during regarding Washington’s views about concrete military support to Turkey.