U.S. in Direct Contact With Rebels Who Took Over Syria

The United States has been in direct contact with the Syrian rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which overthrew the dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad a week ago, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said on Saturday.

His remarks were the first official confirmation that Washington 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 H.T.S. and with other parties” in Syria, Mr. 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.

Mr. 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.