美国与占领叙利亚的叛军直接接触
【中美创新时报2024 年 12 月 15 日编译讯】（记者温友平编译）美国国务卿安东尼·布林肯周六表示，美国一直与一周前推翻巴沙尔·阿萨德独裁统治的叙利亚叛军组织“解放叙利亚”保持直接联系。他的言论首次得到官方证实，美国正在与一个几年前被美国指定为恐怖组织的组织进行沟通，但现在该组织控制着叙利亚临时政府，华盛顿希望影响该组织的行为。《纽约时报》记者迈克尔·克劳利、马修·姆波克·比格和史蒂文·埃尔兰格对此作了下述报道。
布林肯在约旦亚喀巴会见阿拉伯部长，讨论如何协助叙利亚的政治过渡后表示：“我们一直与叙利亚解放阵线和其他各方保持联系。”
他说，美国已经传达了一套治理原则，敦促叙利亚解放阵线采纳这些原则，包括尊重人权和拒绝极端主义。美国还强调了找到并遣返七年前在叙利亚被绑架的美国自由记者奥斯汀·泰斯的重要性。
布林肯是在对叙利亚三国进行访问的最后发表讲话的，此次访问是为应对叙利亚政权突然更迭而匆忙安排的。此次访问还包括在土耳其首都安卡拉和伊拉克首都巴格达停留，最后在亚喀巴举行了会议。
叙利亚阿萨德政府的突然垮台引发了人们的庆祝，但也引发了人们对该国新临时政府如何管理这个饱受 13 年内战和数十年镇压摧残的国家的过渡的不确定性。
“我们已经看到，一个专制政权的垮台如何迅速导致更多的冲突和混乱，一个独裁者的职位如何被另一个独裁者取代，”布林肯警告说。“或者，一个外部国家的干涉如何被抛弃，却又被另一个国家取代。”
叙利亚的权力转移是该地区自 2023 年 10 月 7 日哈马斯袭击以色列以来的又一次动荡，这场袭击引发了持续一年多的战争。叙利亚事件引发了一场重新调整，对土耳其、以色列、伊朗、黎巴嫩和俄罗斯政府都有影响，俄罗斯政府为阿萨德提供了庇护，是他的坚定盟友。
据约旦外交部发表声明称，布林肯在亚喀巴会见了约旦、沙特阿拉伯、伊拉克和埃及的外交部长，以及黎巴嫩看守总理和阿拉伯联盟秘书长艾哈迈德·阿布·盖特。土耳其、联合国和欧盟也参加了会议，但叙利亚新领导层的代表没有出席。
会议结束后，与会者发表联合声明称，叙利亚“终于有机会结束数十年的孤立状态”。
他们呼吁建立一个包容、非宗派的政府，尊重妇女和少数民族的权利，不窝藏恐怖分子，不威胁邻国。该组织还敦促回国难民自由流动，保护外国外交人员，销毁任何剩余的化学武器。
一位不愿透露姓名的美国高级官员表示，拜登政府官员已经为与新获得权力的叙利亚叛军进行讨论开辟了两个单独的沟通渠道。第一项是在阿萨德周日逃离叙利亚前往俄罗斯后不久成立的，另一项是最近为搜寻据信还活着的蒂斯而成立的。
与被列为恐怖组织的组织直接接触对拜登政府来说在政治上是危险的。但许多美国官员表示，叙利亚反政府派系似乎已经变得更加温和，可能准备按照美国的原则进行治理，尽管他们补充说，现在取消正式的恐怖分子称号还为时过早。
“真正重要的是行动——以及持续的行动，”布林肯说。
目前，拜登官员认为沟通可以对该组织的行为产生重要影响。
阿联酋总统谢赫·穆罕默德·本·扎耶德·阿勒纳哈扬的一名助手周六呼吁叙利亚新领导人“克服他们痛苦的历史”，建立一个统一、包容的国家，抵制外部势力的干涉。
阿联酋总统外交顾问安瓦尔·加尔加什赞扬了叙利亚新领导人的温和言论，但对叛军过去与极端伊斯兰教的联系表示担忧。
“这些都是令人担忧的迹象，”加尔加什周六在阿拉伯联合酋长国阿布扎比举行的世界政策会议上表示，当时他的国家外交部长出席了在约旦举行的会议。
他说，他希望伊朗——阿萨德的坚定盟友，最近修复了与海湾阿拉伯国家的关系——现在将集中精力处理国内经济问题和“对其国家安全的合理和理性的担忧”。他说，伊朗应该停止试图通过地区野心和军事代理将自己插入阿拉伯世界，应该从失败中吸取教训。
“回来并试图重新实施基于民兵、基于宗派主义的地区扩张计划，实际上对该地区或伊朗本身都没有好处，”他说。
加尔加什承诺支持该国的重建，这表明海湾国家可能在叙利亚的未来中发挥比近期更大的作用。
土耳其是另一个似乎在叙利亚影响力正在增强的国家，因为它支持由“解放沙姆”组织领导的攻势。一些得到土耳其支持的叙利亚反政府派系与该组织联手发动了攻击。
土耳其政府上周计划重新开放其位于叙利亚首都大马士革的大使馆，该大使馆已关闭近 13 年。它还在叙利亚北部针对其认为构成威胁的库尔德武装分子进行了包括空袭在内的军事行动。
周五，土耳其外交部长哈坎·菲丹向控制叙利亚东北部的库尔德民兵组织人民保护部队（YPG）成员发出了严厉警告。
他在接受土耳其广播公司 NTV 采访时表示：“消灭 YPG 是我们的战略目标。” 他说，任何非叙利亚籍成员都应尽快离开该国，并补充说：“YPG 的整个指挥层也应离开该国。剩下的人应该放下武器，继续生活。”
叙利亚库尔德人领导的武装力量一直是美国在叙利亚打击伊斯兰国恐怖组织的重要合作伙伴。
2011 年叙利亚内战的爆发助长了伊斯兰国武装组织的崛起，该组织占领了叙利亚和伊拉克的大片地区，并花了数年时间才将其击败。伊斯兰国可能会试图利用叙利亚权力转移的机会，这是美国和地区领导人最担心的问题。
布林肯在亚喀巴表示：“这是一个脆弱的时刻，伊斯兰国将试图利用叙利亚的过渡期重组。”
加剧这种担忧的是，土耳其资助并训练了叙利亚反政府武装叙利亚国民军，该军为土耳其在叙利亚北部的军事基地提供安全保障，并帮助其在叙利亚打击库尔德人领导的武装力量。
叙利亚最大的库尔德民兵指挥官上周指责美国抛弃了其在叙利亚的库尔德盟友。
叛军占领叙利亚的另一个连锁反应是，俄罗斯军队周五似乎正在收拾叙利亚港口城市拉塔基亚附近一个重要空军基地的一些军事装备，这可能是全面撤军的前奏。
赫梅米姆基地是俄罗斯在该地区军事立足点的重要组成部分。但该国的动乱使得俄罗斯军队继续在叙利亚驻军的前景目前尚不明朗。
以色列还抓住了阿萨德王朝垮台创造的机会，轰炸了叙利亚的武器库和其他目标，以消除其所谓的潜在威胁，并夺取了有争议的戈兰高地附近的领土。
叙利亚周五谴责以色列的袭击，并呼吁联合国安理会迫使以色列政府停止任何进一步的袭击。
叙利亚驻联合国大使库赛·阿尔达哈克表示，安理会应该“迫使以色列尊重国际法”，不要让它从叙利亚的过渡中获益。
本文最初刊登于《纽约时报》。
题图：周六，一名叙利亚反对派战士在阿勒颇机场一架废弃的叙利亚军用直升机前举着 AK-47 做手势。Burak Kara/Getty
附原英文报道：
United States in direct contact with rebels who took over Syria
By Michael Crowley, Matthew Mpoke Bigg and Steven Erlanger New York Times,Updated December 14, 2024
A Syrian opposition fighter gestured with his AK-47 in front of an abandoned Syrian army helicopter at the Aleppo airport on Saturday.Burak Kara/Getty
The United States has been in direct contact with Syrian rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which overthrew the dictatorship of Bashar Assad a week ago, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Saturday.
His remarks were the first official confirmation that the United States is communicating with a group that it designated a terrorist organization several years ago but whose behavior Washington hopes to influence now that the group controls Syria’s interim government.
“We’ve been in contact with HTS and with other parties” in Syria, Blinken said, referring to the rebel group, after a meeting with Arab ministers in Aqaba, Jordan, to discuss how to assist Syria’s political transition.
He said that the United States had communicated a set of governing principles that it is urging Hayat Tahrir al-Sham to adopt, including respect for human rights and rejecting extremism. The United States has also stressed the importance of finding and returning Austin Tice, a freelance American journalist kidnapped in Syria seven years ago.
Blinken spoke at the end of a three-nation tour through the region, scheduled hastily in response to the sudden change of power in Syria. The trip, which also featured stops in Ankara, the Turkish capital, and Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, ended with the meeting in Aqaba.
The abrupt demise of the Assad government in Syria has prompted celebrations but also uncertainty over how the new interim administration there can manage a transition in a country shattered by 13 years of civil war and decades of repression.
“We’ve seen how the fall of a repressive regime can swiftly give way to more conflict and chaos, how the shoes of one dictator can be filled by another,” Blinken warned. “Or how interference by an outside country can be thrown off, only to be replaced by another.”
Syria’s power shift is another upheaval in a region reeling since the attack by Hamas on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which set off war that has gone on for more than a year. The events in Syria have set in motion a realignment with implications for Turkey, Israel, Iran, Lebanon and the Russian government, which has given refuge to Assad and was a stalwart ally of his.
Blinken met in Aqaba with foreign ministers from Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Egypt, as well as the caretaker prime minister of Lebanon and secretary-general of the Arab League, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, according to a statement by Jordan’s Foreign Ministry. Turkey, the United Nations and the European Union also participated, but representatives of Syria’s new leadership did not attend.
The conference participants issued a joint statement after their meeting, saying that Syria “finally has the chance to end decades of isolation.”
They called for an inclusive and nonsectarian government that respects the rights of women and minorities, does not harbor terrorists and does not threaten its neighbors. The group also urged the free movement of returning refugees, the protection of foreign diplomatic personnel and the destruction of any remaining chemical weapons.
A senior U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomacy, said that Biden administration officials had opened two separate communication channels for the discussions with the newly empowered Syria rebels. The first was established shortly after Assad fled the country for Russia on Sunday, the other more recently as part of the search for Tice, who is believed to be alive.
Having direct contact with a group classified as a terrorist entity is politically dicey for the Biden administration. But many U.S. officials say the Syrian rebel faction appears to have grown more moderate, and may be prepared to govern in line with American principles, though they add that it is too early to remove the formal terrorist designation.
“What really counts is action — and sustained action,” Blinken said.
For now, Biden officials believe communication can have an important influence over the group’s behavior.
An aide to Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the president of the United Arab Emirates, called Saturday on Syria’s new leaders to “overcome their tortured history” to create a unified and inclusive state, resistant to the meddling of outside powers.
Anwar Gargash, the diplomatic adviser to the Emirati president, praised the moderate statements of Syria’s new leaders but expressed concern about the rebels’ past affiliations with radical Islam.
“These are all indicators that are quite worrying,” Gargash said Saturday at a World Policy Conference in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, as his country’s foreign minister attended the meeting in Jordan.
He said he hoped that Iran, a staunch ally of Assad, which recently mended ties with the Arab nations of the Gulf, will now concentrate on domestic economic issues and “reasonable and rational concerns about its national security.” Iran, he said, should stop trying to insert itself into the Arab world with regional ambitions and military proxies and should learn lessons from its defeats.
“To come back and try to reincarnate a program of regional expansion based on militias, based on sectarianism, is not really in the good of the region or in the good of Iran itself,” he said.
In a sign that the Gulf States may play a greater role in Syria’s future than they have in its recent past, Gargash promised to support the country’s reconstruction.
Turkey is another country that appears to be emerging with greater influence in Syria, given its support of the offensive led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. Some Syrian rebel factions backed by Turkey joined forces with the group in the assault.
The Turkish government made plans this past week to reopen its embassy in Damascus, Syria’s capital, which has been closed for almost 13 years. It also conducted military operations, including airstrikes, in northern Syria against Kurdish militants whom it considers a threat.
On Friday, the Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan issued a stark warning to members of the Kurdish militia that controls northeastern Syria, the People’s Protection Units, or YPG.
“It is our strategic target to eliminate the YPG,” he said in an interview with Turkish broadcaster NTV. He said any members who were not Syrian should leave the country as soon as possible, and added: “The entire command level of YPG should leave the country, too. The remaining ones should continue living as they lay down their weapons.”
The Kurdish-led forces in Syria have been important partners with the United States in the fight there against the Islamic State terrorist group.
The outbreak of civil war in Syria in 2011 helped to fuel the rise of the Islamic State militant group, which conquered large swaths of Syria and Iraq and took years to defeat. The potential that ISIS might try to take advantage of the power shift in Syria is a chief concern for U.S. and regional leaders.
“This is a moment of vulnerability in which ISIS will seek to regroup, taking advantage of the transition in Syria,” Blinken said in Aqaba.
Compounding that worry is the fact that Turkey has funded and trained a Syrian rebel force, the Syrian National Army, which provided security for Turkish military bases in northern Syria and helped it fight Kurdish-led forces in the country.
The commander of Syria’s largest Kurdish militia accused the United States this past week of abandoning its Kurdish allies in Syria.
In another ripple effect of the rebel takeover in Syria, Russian forces appeared Friday to be packing up some military equipment at an important air base near the Syrian port city of Latakia in a possible prelude to a broader withdrawal.
The Hmeimim base is a critical part of Russia’s military foothold in the region. But the upheaval in the country has left the prospects for a continuing Russian military presence in Syria unclear for now.
Israel has also seized an opportunity created by the collapse of the Assad dynasty, bombing weapons stores and other targets in Syria to eliminate what it says are potential threats and also seizing territory in the country near the disputed Golan Heights.
Syria on Friday condemned Israel’s attacks and called on the U.N. Security Council to compel the Israeli government to cease any further attacks.
Syria’s ambassador to the United Nations, Koussay Aldahhak, said the Security Council should “compel Israel to respect international law,” and not allow it to benefit from Syria’s transition.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
