UK in ‘diplomatic contact’ with Syrian rebels, says Lammy

UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy has said the British government has had “diplomatic contact” with the Syrian rebel group that toppled the Assad regime.

Lammy said Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) remains a proscribed terrorist organisation, but the UK “can have diplomatic contact and so we do have diplomatic contact, as you would expect”.

His US counterpart Antony Blinken said on Saturday that the US had made “direct contact” with the HTS rebels now in control of Syria.

Lammy’s remarks come as the government announced a £50m humanitarian aid package for vulnerable Syrians.

Speaking on Sunday, Lammy said: “We want to see a representative government, an inclusive government. We want to see chemical weapons stockpiles secured, and not used, and we want to ensure that there is not continuing violence.”

“For all of those reasons, 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.”

The diplomatic contact with HTS does not mean the foreign secretary has personally been in touch with the rebel group.