Assistant Secretary Barbara A. Leaf, Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs Roger Carstens, and Ambassador Daniel Rubenstein travelled to Damascus, Syria to engage with the Syrian people, including members of civil society, humanitarians, and others regarding their vision for the future of Syria and how the United States can support them. They also met with representatives of HTS to discuss transition principles shared by the United States and regional partners. In their meetings, they stressed the immense importance of finding missing U.S. citizens, including Austin Tice, and bringing them home.
Assistant Secretary Leaf reaffirmed the United States' full support for an inclusive, Syrian-led and Syrian-owned political transition and a process that leads to credible, inclusive, representative, and non-sectarian governance that meets international standards of transparency and accountability in the spirit of United Nations Security Council resolution 2254.
