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Alsharq Tribune - Mohamed Otaify
MODERATOR: Greetings to everyone from the U.S. Department of State’s London International Media Hub. I would like to welcome our participants dialing in from Türkiye, Syria, and around the world for this briefing with Acting Under Secretary for Political Affairs John Bass on his travel to Ankara and consultations with the Turkish Government on Syria. We will have 30 minutes for this briefing, which is on the record. We are pleased to offer this briefing with simultaneous interpretation into Arabic. We therefore ask everyone to keep this in mind and speak slowly. We will have some opening remarks from our speaker and then he will take questions from participating journalists. I will now turn it over to Under Secretary Bass for his opening remarks. Sir, the floor is yours
ACTING UNDER SECRETARY BASS: Thank you, Liz. Colleagues, good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever this may find you. I am concluding a one-and-a-half-day visit here in Ankara along with a number of colleagues from other parts of the U.S. Government who traveled with me for the latest set of discussions with interagency colleagues in the Turkish Government under the rubric of a Syria Working Group that we established last year between our two governments.
The principal focus of our visit has been to discuss the latest developments in Syria and ways we can work together, ways we can work with Syria’s other neighbors, and with our allies and partners in the Middle East and Europe to support the ongoing transition in Syria following the collapse of the Assad regime.
Our visit is part of a broader set of United States Government engagements with countries across the region and in Europe on ways we can work together to help the Syrian people seize this opportunity to build a better future.
The meetings here in Ankara, including this latest round this afternoon of our Syria Working Group, have been productive and constructive. And in these in-depth discussions we have focused on ways that, either together or in a complementary fashion, we can support a responsible transition in Syria that, over time, enables the Syrian Government to again take responsibility for and execute the functions of government and of governance that are normally provided by national governments but which for a number of reasons – notably the civil war in Syria in response to the atrocities and repression of the Assad regime – has for many years resulted in significant portions of Syria being outside of the control of the national government, and certainly of responsible national authorities.
An important element of those normal functions of governance that featured in our discussions today were responsibility for international borders, internationally recognized borders, and for internal security within the state. And in that regard, we discussed concrete steps that will need to be taken to ensure that this transition period does not result in the resurgence of Daesh or the resurgence of other foreign terrorist organizations that have been present inside Syria in a way that creates threats for the citizens of Syria, for Syria’s neighbors, or for any other country.
We’ve also discussed in depth a range of steps that the United States and other governments have taken to enable the interim authorities in Damascus to address the immediate needs of the Syrian people, including via support from other governments for things like salaries payments for the civilian administration at the national level, for donations of power or energy, and for some of the other measures that are required to stabilize the Syrian Government, to stabilize the economy, and to give the Syrian people hope that this transition will yield a better future for all of the citizens of the country.
So with that, I am happy to take your questions.
MODERATOR: Next we’ll take a question from the chat, and it goes to Ahmad Zakaria from Syria 24. And Ahmad asks: “What is the fate of al-Hol camp in the countryside of al-Hasakah and the prisons housing ISIS members in eastern Syria? Are there any upcoming plans concerning them?
” ACTING UNDER SECRETARY BASS: So the discussion today reflected a series of discussions that the United States, Türkiye, the Government of Iraq, and a number of other governments have had regarding the importance of ensuring that over time the population of the detention facilities in Syria is reduced and that the people who are currently resident in those facilities are able to go back to their countries of origin to be reintegrated into those societies. And we’ve seen important progress in recent weeks and months to reduce the overall population of al-Hol, and we are committed to continuing our support for the efforts to repatriate those family members of extremists who have been present there and to help ensure that they can have a humane transition and reintegration into the societies from which they originated.
MODERATOR: Thank you. Next we’ll take a question from the live queue, and we’ll go to Abdulhalim Sulaiman of Independent Arabia in Iraq. Abdulhalim, please go ahead and ask your question.
QUESTION: Good evening. Thank you, Elizabeth. (Inaudible) Mr. John, I will cut interpretation. Wait just a minute.
Okay, my question is: Are there any negotiation between Türkiye and Syrian Democratic Forces under your supervision, sir? And is there any agreement on disarming the border area and deploying international forces, perhaps French and American, around Kobani and another area in the border in northeast Syria? And what is the – Türkiye’s response to your efforts there? Thank you.
ACTING UNDER SECRETARY BASS: Thank you for your question. We believe – the United States believes – that, as I mentioned earlier, that the national government of Syria should, over time, once again, resume responsibility for the internationally recognized borders of Syria and resume responsibility for appropriate border control and border security for Syria’s borders.
How quickly that can occur is in part a function of the capacity of the interim authorities to assume those responsibilities and to be able to provide effective border management in coordination with Syria’s neighbors. There are different dynamics, as you know, along different parts of Syria’s border with the different neighbors, so I don’t know that there is a precise timetable or – in which this will occur. But we are committed to doing everything we can to help create the conditions that will enable a national government to again resume those important responsibilities.
Part of an effective transition and part of ensuring there is good, positive momentum and forward progress that allows for the interim government to gradually over time develop capacity and give the Syrian people and the international community confidence that they are working to be responsible members of the international community and to meet the needs of the Syrian people is to ensure that there is not a resumption of large-scale fighting within Syria and that groups within the country that have vied for control of certain areas or previously resolved differences through violence are no longer doing that and that they are contributing to supporting the restoration of normal functions of government, whether that’s at the national level or at the local level in terms of the administration of different cities and areas of Syria.
So that’s the paradigm within which we’re working, and we are making clear to everyone within Syria with whom we have partnerships or with whom we’ve worked that our expectation as a government is that they will contribute constructively to this transition and support the re-creation of a national government in Damascus that is a responsible government, responsible to its own citizens and responsible to its neighbors and to the international community.
MODERATOR: Next we’ll take a pre-submitted question from Dilhan Deniz Kilislioğlu from NTV in Türkiye, and Dilhan Deniz asks: “Will the United States take further steps in lifting sanctions on Syria? And what would be the response if Türkiye were to launch an operation in Syria?”
ACTING UNDER SECRETARY BASS: So as you may have noticed, the United States earlier this week took important steps to provide provisions under our existing sanctions regime that substantially expand the range of economic activities and the range of support that governments can provide to the interim government to allow it to function effectively, to ensure that basic services can be provided to the Syrian people, and to make sure that conditions do not worsen for the citizens of Syria during this transitional period.
So we have authorized some very specific types of activities, including financial support from other governments for the interim authorities in Damascus, to ensure that technocrats, civil servants within the Syrian state can be paid and paid at a living wage, if I can use that term; to enable provision of electricity or fuel to generate electricity or meet other needs that address some of the key challenges the society has faced; and another – a wider range of some economic activities.
And we’ve also made sure that private financial transactions between Syrians outside of the country and Syrians inside of the country can occur so that people who have been displaced over the years by this terrible conflict can support family members or relations who are still inside the country in this challenging period.
We are continuing to talk with a number of governments, notably Syria’s neighbors but also countries in the Gulf and in the Arab world and in Europe, about additional ways in which we and other countries and organizations that have sanctions regimes can make adjustments to those regimes to allow for the kinds of immediate support that are required to enable the interim authorities to undertake a successful transition and to help the Syrian people begin to address the many needs that have built up over years of violence and suffering and repression by the Assad regime.
MODERATOR: Next, we’ll take a question from the live queue, and we’ll go to Mohamed Shehoud of Asharq News. Mohamed, please, go ahead and ask your question.
QUESTION: Thank you. I need to ask about the engage between the current Administration, Biden administration, and the incoming Trump administration, regarding Syria – and how the connection with your ongoing effort about removing HTS or sanctions, or with Ahmed al-Sharaa.
ACTING UNDER SECRETARY BASS: Thank you. I am a senior official of the current United States Government. I can’t speak for the next U.S. administration, nor can I offer any insights at this time into how U.S. policy might change under the next administration.
But I’m confident that those of our colleagues in the U.S. Government who have been intently focused on these issues will do our very best to make sure that new colleagues who are entering our government with the change in administration will, to the best of our ability, be provided with as much information as possible about ongoing conditions and dynamics, about the steps that the current U.S. Administration has taken to try to support the interim authorities and address the needs of the Syrian people, and some of the opportunities and potential risks associated with steps that the new administration might choose to take, to ensure that our next government in the United States can make informed choices about the policy decisions that they face and about the policies and actions that they will choose to pursue with regard to Syria.
MODERATOR: We’ll stay in the live queue and take a question from Diyar Kurda from Rudaw Media Network. Diyar, please, go ahead and ask your question.
QUESTION: Thank you so much, Elizabeth. So thank you so much, Ambassador, for doing this. I have one question. The Kurdish officials in the past few days have floated the idea of U.S. and French troops could secure the Syrian northern border in – to address the Türkiye security concerns. Have you touched that issue with the Turkish officials? And overall, what’s the U.S. position on that idea? Thank you.
ACTING UNDER SECRETARY BASS: Thank you. So obviously I can’t speak on any level for the French Government. What I can say with regard to my own government is that we are intently focused on the very real security concerns of the Turkish Government and Turkish society with regard to the extent to which foreign terrorists, including the PKK, have at times taken advantage of the situation inside Syria, and the importance of ensuring that this transitional period in Syria does not lead to additional risks to Türkiye, to Iraq, or to frankly any of Syria’s neighbors.
I would also say that we are very attuned in our government to the dynamics in which some people, some governments might see the presence of U.S. troops as providing reassurance; but we are also aware that some groups or individuals might seek to take advantage of the presence of U.S. forces to engage in activities which undercut the security of one of the neighboring countries, including Türkiye. And we do not want to see that result, and we are being very careful as a result of that perspective that we have to make sure that any adjustments that we might make to our presence and the activities of the United States forces inside Syria are engaged in to ensure that it doesn’t increase risk or jeopardy for the neighboring countries.
Our military presence inside Syria is for a very specific purpose, and that is to ensure that Daesh does not again become a threat to the people of Syria, the people of Türkiye, the people of Iraq or Jordan or any other country, given the very painful decade in which we have all worked so hard to deal with the geographic caliphate – so-called caliphate – that Daesh created and to restabilize, to help the governments of the countries that Daesh destabilized – to help those governments recover from that terrible experience. We don’t want to see that return, and it’s very much in that spirit that we are evaluating how we can contribute to a successful transition inside Syria.
MODERATOR: We have time for one last question, and it will go to Mohamed Maher from Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper in Egypt. And Mohammad asks: “What is the U.S. position on the Syrian territories occupied by Israel following the collapse of the Assad regime? Does the U.S. envision playing a role in mediating future discussions between Israel and Syria?
ACTING UNDER SECRETARY BASS: So, I can’t speak to the future given – as I noted earlier – that I’m a member of the current Administration which will be departing office next week. But I can say that the United States government believes that all of Syria’s neighbors should work through this period – this transitional period – with the perspective of, of course, addressing their own national security concerns but doing that in ways that do not contribute to creating additional instability inside Syria or distracting the transitional authorities from concentrating on a responsible transition and on the very real and pressing needs and concerns of the Syrian people.
MODERATOR: And that concludes today’s call. I’m sorry that we could not get to all questions today. I would like to thank Under Secretary Bass for joining us, and I would like to thank all of our journalists for participating.
