Blinken says US has had 'direct contact' with Syria's HTS rebels who toppled al-Assad

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said he has been in "direct contact" with the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham rebel group and laid out the principles for ongoing support for Syria's political transition.

Speaking at a press conference in the Jordanian city Aqaba, Blinken said that America and its allies "have an important stake in helping the Syrian people chart this new path."

"ISIS and other terrorist groups still maintain presence in Syria, and want to use this period of uncertainty to try to regain a foothold.  No one understands these challenges better than Syrian people themselves.  And Syrians know they are going to need support from their neighbours and from the international community to meet these challenges," he said.

Those comments come less than a week after insurgents, led by HTS, marched into Damascus and toppled Bashar al-Assad, who had ruled Syria with an iron fist for 24 years.

Since then, HTS has worked to establish security and start a political transition. But the group has also tried to reassure a public concerned about extremist jihadis among the rebels.

Insurgent leaders say the group has broken with its extremist past, though HTS is still proscribed a terrorist group by the United States and European countries. The group previously had ties to Al-Qaeda.

"In this region and elsewhere, 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, or how interference by an outside country can be thrown off only to be replaced by another," Blinken said. 

"That’s why it's so important that we and our partners came together today to agree on principles that will guide our efforts to help the Syrian people meet these challenges and build the inclusive, non-sectarian, peaceful and sovereign state they want."

Gaza ceasefire

And speaking earlier in Jordan, Blinken also urged Israel and Hamas to conclude a ceasefire and hostage-return deal during a final diplomatic push on a tour of the Middle East. 

Blinken said that "this is a moment to bring this to an end."

"For Hamas, as I said before, the cavalry is not coming to the rescue. They are not going to get the wider war that they've long sought," he said.

"And Israel, as I said some time ago, achieved its core military objectives necessary to helping ensure that October 7th never happens again."

A ceasefire would give outgoing President Joe Biden a final diplomatic victory after a turbulent term in which his administration has been unable to halt a brutal war that has claimed tens of thousands of lives in Gaza and plunged the territory into a humanitarian crisis.

President-elect Donald Trump has demanded the immediate release of hostages, threatening on social media that otherwise there would be "HELL TO PAY" and has urged the US not to get involved in Syria, where some 900 troops are based to combat the Islamic State militant group.

Blinken is wrapping up a three-country regional tour in Aqaba after visiting Iraq, Türkiye and Jordan once already this week to discuss Gaza and the evolving situation in Syria.

It is likely that this will be his final trip to the Middle East as Secretary of State before the US administration changes in January.

Gaza City strike

Blinken's comments in Jordan come on the same day that Palestinian medical officials said at least seven people were killed in an Israeli air strike in Gaza City.

The strike hit the Majda Wasilla school, which shelters many displaced families in the western side of Gaza City, according to the al-Ahly Baptist Hospital.

The strike also wounded 12 others, said the hospital which received the casualties.

Among the dead was a woman and her two-day-old girl and the woman’s sister, said Etaf Saadat, a displaced women sheltering in the school.

"The strike happened and we did not see anything in front of us, who was martyred and who was not,” Saadat said.

“There were those who were burned, and those who were cut up, and the rubble was on top of them.”

The war in Gaza erupted late last year when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on 7 October, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250 others.

Around 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, but at least a third are believed to be dead.

Israel's military offensive has killed 44,930 Palestinians in Gaza, more than half of them women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not say how many were combatants.

The Israeli military says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.