Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on December 15, 2024
1 min readLast updated: January 27, 2026
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Britain has engaged in diplomatic contact with Syria's HTS group, despite its proscribed status, as confirmed by Foreign Minister David Lammy. The US also maintains direct contact.
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain has had diplomatic contact with the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group that swept Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from power last week, British foreign minister David Lammy said on Sunday.
"HTS remains a proscribed organisation, but we can have diplomatic contact and so we do have diplomatic contact as you would expect," Lammy told broadcasters.
"Using all the channels that we have available, and those are diplomatic and, of course, intelligence-led channels, we seek to deal with HTS where we have to."
On Saturday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States has had direct contact with HTS.
(Reporting by William James, Editing by Louise Heavens)
The article discusses Britain's diplomatic contact with Syria's HTS group, despite its proscribed status.
HTS is a significant group in Syria, involved in the conflict and considered a proscribed organization by the UK.
David Lammy confirmed that Britain has diplomatic contact with HTS using diplomatic and intelligence channels.
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