US says it could recognise new Syrian government, lawmakers push to unwind sanctions

The Biden administration has said it will recognise and support a new government in Syria if that government were to commit to several actions, including renouncing terrorism and destroying any chemical weapons depots in the country.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday said the new Syrian government must "uphold clear commitments to fully respect the rights of minorities, facilitate the flow of humanitarian assistance to all in need, prevent Syria from being used as a base for terrorism or posing a threat to its neighbours".

“The United States will recognise and fully support a future Syria government that results from this process,” Blinken said.

However, Blinken did not specify which groups the US would work with over the next few weeks that Biden has left in office before President-elect Donald Trump takes over in January.

On Tuesday, two US lawmakers sent a letter to the Biden administration calling for the US to lift some sanctions on Syria's government. 

"The fall of the Assad regime presents a pivotal opportunity to responsibly unwind sanctions on Syria to facilitate stabilization, reconstruction, international investment, humanitarian recovery, and international reintegration while safeguarding US interests," Congressmen Joe Wilson and Brendan Boyle wrote.

The collapse of the government of Bashar al-Assad, brought about by a sudden and swift rebel offensive that took a total of 11 days, has surprised much of the world and left the Biden administration with another major foreign policy issue to contend with.

On top of this, the main opposition group that led the rebel offensive was Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a US-designated terrorist group. And its leader, Ahmed al-Shara, also known as Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, has a $10m bounty over his head.

A senior Arab official previously told Middle East Eye that Washington was discussing the merits of lifting the bounty on Jolani's head, and the Biden administration has signalled an openness to working with HTS.

However, with Biden leaving office next month, all eyes will be on how the Trump administration deals with the Syria portfolio.

"I doubt the Biden administration will formally recognise the new Syrian government - what really matters is what Trump will do," Adam Weinstein, deputy director of the Middle East programme at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, told Middle East Eye.

"The US will likely take a wait-and-see approach, focusing on counterterrorism, much like it does with the Taliban."

Weinstein noted that the bounty on Jolani isn't much of a hindrance to establishing a communication channel between HTS and Washington, given that Jolani has been operating out in the open for years without any US attempts on his life.

"Jolani had a US bounty on his head while operating openly in Idlib, so if the US truly saw him as a critical threat, he’d have been killed long ago," Weinstein said.

Trump has already publicly said he doesn't want the US involved in Syria - a similar approach he tried to take with the country the last time he was in office.

“This is not our fight. Let it play out. Do not get involved,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

'HTS has less baggage'

HTS and Jolani have for years tried to make outreach to the West, shedding their ties to al-Qaeda and presenting themselves as a more moderate group capable of maintaining and overseeing a pluralistic society in Syria.

In previous years, those pleas fell on deaf ears. In a 2021 interview with PBS, former US ambassador James Jeffrey said he ignored a message from HTS calling for US support.

However, with Jolani and the group now at the forefront of the post-Assad Syrian transition, Washington has approached HTS with wary optimism, noting that the group is "saying the right things".

The letter sent by lawmakers to the Biden administration is further evidence that the approach from Washington already appears to be taking a different shape and trajectory than that of the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan in 2021, when the US froze billions of dollars of Afghanistan's assets.

"Unlike the Taliban, HTS carries less baggage with US policymakers and lawmakers, and for now, it doesn't appear to be enforcing equally strict social measures, but time will tell," Weinstein said.