Biden’s top hostage envoy Roger Carstens is in Syria to ask for help finding Austin Tice

Roger Carstens, the Biden administration’s top official concerned with the release of Americans detained abroad, arrived Friday in Damascus, Syria, on a high-stakes mission: making the first known direct face-to-face contact with the interim government and requesting help in finding… Missing American journalist Austin Tice.

Tice was kidnapped in Syria 12 years ago during civil war and brutal rule Now deposed Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. For years, US officials said they did not know for sure whether Tice was still alive, where he was being held or by whom.

Barbara Leaf, the State Department’s senior diplomat for the Middle East and Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, accompanied Carstens to Damascus as a gesture of broader engagement with Syria. Hay’at Tahrir al-Shamknown as Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, the rebel group that recently ousted the Assad regime and is emerging as a leading force.

Senior Near East Advisor Daniel Rubinstein was also present with the delegation. They are the first American diplomats to visit Damascus in more than a decade, according to a State Department spokesman.

The spokesman said that they intend to meet with representatives of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham to discuss the transitional principles approved by the United States and regional partners in Aqaba, Jordan. Secretary of State Antony Blinken Travel to Aqaba Last week to meet with Middle East leaders and discuss the situation in Syria.

While Tice and other American citizens who had disappeared underground were found and freed Assad regime Although this is the ultimate goal, American officials downplay expectations of a breakthrough in this journey. Multiple sources told CBS News that Carstens and Leaf’s intention was to convey US interests to senior HTS leaders, and find out anything they could about Tice.

The State Department spokesman added that Rubinstein will lead American diplomacy in Syria, and deal directly with the Syrian people and the main parties in Syria.

Diplomatic outreach to Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham in a turbulent, war-torn region comes at an ambiguous moment. Two sources even compared the potential danger to the exploratory diplomacy practiced by the late US Ambassador Christopher Stevens, who led rebel outreach in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012 and was killed in a terrorist attack on a US diplomatic compound and intelligence center.

US Special Operations Forces known as JSOC provided security for the delegation as they traveled by car across the Jordanian border and on the road to Damascus. The convoy has received assurances from Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham that it will be granted safe passage while in Syria, but there remains the threat of attacks by other terrorist groups, including ISIS.

CBS News has withheld publication of this story for security reasons at the request of the State Department.

Sending high-ranking US diplomats to Damascus represents an important step in reopening US-Syrian relations after the fall of the Assad regime less than two weeks ago. Operations at the US Embassy in Damascus have been suspended since 2012, shortly after the Assad regime brutally suppressed an uprising that turned into a 14-year civil war and sent 13 million Syrians fleeing the country in one of the world’s largest humanitarian disasters.

The United States officially designated Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, which has ties to al-Qaeda, as a foreign terrorist organization in 2018. The United States designated its leader, Muhammad al-Julani, a terrorist in 2013 and before that served time in a US prison in Iraq. .

Since Assad’s ouster, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham has publicly expressed interest in a new, more moderate path. Al-Julani even took control of him Code name He now uses his legal name, Ahmed Al-Sharaa.

US sanctions on HTS linked to those terrorist designations complicate communication to some extent, but have not prevented US officials from conducting direct contact with HTS at the direction of President Biden. Blinken recently confirmed that US officials were in contact with representatives of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham before Carstens and Lev’s visit.

“We have heard positive statements coming from Mr. al-Julani, the leader of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham,” Blinken told Bloomberg News on Thursday. “But what everyone is focusing on is what is actually happening on the ground, and what are they doing? Are they working to build a transitional phase in Syria in which everyone participates?”

In that same interview, Blinken also appeared to comment on the possibility that the United States could help lift UN-imposed sanctions on Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham and its leader, if Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham builds what he called an inclusive, non-sectarian government and eventually holds elections. The Biden administration is not expected to lift the US terrorist designation before the end of the president’s term on January 20.

Pentagon spokesman Pat Ryder revealed Thursday that the United States currently has nearly 2,000 American troops inside Syria as part of the mission to defeat ISIS, a number far higher than the 900 troops previously acknowledged by the Biden administration. There are at least five American military bases in the north and south of the country.

The Biden administration is concerned about that Thousands of ISIS prisoners It is possible that detainees in Al-Hawl camp will be released. It is currently guarded by the Syrian Democratic Forces, Kurdish allies of the United States who are wary of the newly powerful Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham. The situation on the ground has been changing rapidly since Russia and Iran withdrew military support from the Assad regime, resetting the balance of power. Türkiye, a sometimes problematic ally of the United States, has served as a conduit for Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham and emerges as a power broker.

A high-risk mission like this is unusual for the normally risk-averse Biden administration, which has consistently practiced restrained diplomacy. Blinken approved the trip by Carstens and Lev, and the relevant congressional leaders were briefed on it a few days ago.

“I think it’s important to have direct communication, and it’s important to speak as clearly as possible, to listen, to make sure that we understand as best we can where they’re going and where they want to go,” Blinken said on Thursday.

In a press conference In Moscow on Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that he had not yet met Assad, who fled to Russia when his regime fell earlier this month. Putin added that he will ask Assad about Austin Tice when they meet.

Tice, a Marine Corps veteran, has worked for several news organizations including CBS News.