CNN — The United States has removed the long-standing $10 million bounty on the de-facto leader of Syria following a high-level US delegation meeting with the former jihadist Friday.
Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf, one of three US officials who sat down with Ahmad al-Sharaa in Damascus, described the “policy decision” as one aligned with the need to work on “critical issues” such as combating terrorism.
Al-Sharaa “committed to this,” Leaf said, “and so based on our discussion, I told him we would not be pursuing the Rewards for Justice reward offer that has been in effect for some years.” Al-Sharaa is the leader of the US-designated terrorist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).
The meeting al-Sharaa, formerly called Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, underscored the urgency of US efforts to engage with Syria’s interim government to ensure the country does not see a resurgence of ISIS which US officials have warned will seek to regroup in the wake of the stunning collapse of the Syrian regime
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