For President Bidentadhana slots, the fall of Syria’s tyrant on Sunday was a moment to cheer what he called a “fundamental act of justice” and to claim a measure of credit for his own policy.
But it also presented Mr. Biden with a fundamental challenge late in his presidency: How does the United States make friends with the newly emerging forces taking control in Syria when it has deemed them terrorists? And should it?
The main rebel faction that toppled President Bashar al-Assad is a group called Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which was once an affiliate of Al Qaeda and, even though it broke with the older organization years ago, remains designated a terrorist group itself by the U.S. government.
The United States has been passing messages through the Turkish government in recent days to the rebel groups involved in the lightning blitz that suddenly took down Mr. al-Assad, mainly warning them against teaming up with militants from the Islamic State. The groups responded through the Turks with assurances that they had no intention of allowing the Islamic State to be part of their movement, according to U.S. and Turkish officials briefed on the messages.
But now Mr. Biden and his top advisers are debating the extent to which they should engage directly with the rebel groups going forward, according to the officials, who described internal deliberations on the condition of anonymity. U.S. intelligence analysts and administration policymakers were trying to determine whether the groups had substantially changed, or were prepared to change, their ways to address the concerns of the United States and its allies in the region about terrorist affiliations.
In a televised statement from the White House hailing the fall of the Assad family’s half century of repressive rule in Syria, Mr. Biden gave voice to the mix of cautious optimism and wary uncertainty about the new forces taking power in Syria.
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