The United States said Saturday it had made contact with Syria's victorious Hayat Tahrir al-Sham rebels, as Western and Arab states along with Turkey jointly voiced support for a united, peaceful Syria.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken's comment on "direct contact" with the HTS rebels came despite the United States having designated the group as terrorists in 2018.
While Blinken and other diplomats held talks on Syria in Aqaba, Jordan, Turkey reopened its embassy in Damascus, nearly a week after the Islamist-led rebels toppled president Bashar Assad — and 12 years after Ankara's diplomatic mission was shuttered early in Syria's civil war.
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