“The other thing they have to ask themselves is the Taliban – there is a lesson there. The Taliban projected a more moderate face or at least tried to in taking over Afghanistan, and then its true colors came out. The result is it remains terribly isolated around the world,” Blinken said in a panel.
He called on the Islamist-led group to respect Syria’s diverse communities and refrain from adopting hardline policies to avoid global isolation.
“If you don’t want that isolation, then there are certain things that you have to do in moving the country forward … to deal with and protect minorities, to deal with some of the security challenges, whether It’s chemical weapons, whether it’s groups like ISIS [Islamic State],” he stressed.
HTS, the successor of the Al-Nusra Front, has its roots in al-Qaeda’s Syrian branch. It has long controlled a rebel enclave in the northwestern province of Idlib and is a designated terrorist organization by the US and EU.
It led a blistering offensive against Bashar al-Assad’s regime late last month, securing major cities on the road to Damascus before taking the capital on December 8 as Assad fled the country, ending over five decades of Baathist rule.
“We laid out together some principles [with regional countries] for what we expect going forward in Syria if what emerges in Syria wants to have that recognition,” Blinken stressed, adding that such considerations should be “front of mind” for the HTS-led transitional government.
On Saturday, Blinken said that Washington was in “direct contact” with the HTS but did not give further details.
A spokesperson for Syria’s transitional government said on Wednesday that no authority other than the central government in Damascus will be recognized while affirming that Kurds are equal partners in rebuilding the nation.
