UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy has confirmed that the British government has engaged in “diplomatic contact” with the Syrian rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which played a key role in toppling the Assad regime.
Lammy clarified that while HTS remains a proscribed terrorist organization, the UK can still maintain diplomatic relations when necessary. “We can have diplomatic contact, and so we do have diplomatic contact, as you would expect,” he said.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also acknowledged on Saturday that the US has made “direct contact” with the HTS rebels now in control of Syria.
Lammy’s comments came as the UK government announced a £50 million humanitarian aid package for vulnerable Syrians. Speaking on Sunday, Lammy emphasized the need for a representative and inclusive government in Syria, as well as the importance of securing chemical weapons stockpiles and preventing ongoing violence.
“For all of those reasons, using all the channels that we have available, and those are diplomatic and of course intelligence-led channels, we seek to deal with HTS where we have to,” he added.
Lammy noted that diplomatic contact with HTS does not mean he has personally been in touch with the rebel group. The UK closed its embassy in Damascus in 2013, two years after the Assad regime began brutally suppressing Arab Spring protests.
When asked if HTS could be removed from the UK’s list of proscribed terrorist groups, Lammy stated that the organization remains classified as a proscribed group that originated from al-Qaeda.
