Conversation in Damascus: US delegation allegedly met Assad's intelligence chief

Shortly after dictator Bashar al-Assad gunned down peaceful demonstrations in Syria in the summer of 2011, the US broke off diplomatic relations with Damascus. Now, apparently, there has been a meeting between representatives of both governments for the first time.

A high-level US delegation of secret and security personnel is said to have met Ali Mamluk, the coordinator of the Syrian intelligence apparatus, in Damascus at the end of June. A report from the Lebanese newspaper "al-Akhbar" has confirmed several US officials Reuters.

Russia and the United Arab Emirates are said to have mediated the meeting. The meeting was also attended by Syrian intelligence chief Mohammed Dib Zeitoun and deputy chief of staff Mowafak Assaad. US President Barack Obama imposed sanctions on Mamluk and Zeitoun in 2011, which are still in force.

Mamluk calls for normalization of relations

Two US intelligence officials told Reuters that they were "in an ongoing dialogue with members of the Assad regime" about the fight against the terrorist organization "Islamic State" (IS), the Syrian chemical weapons arsenal and the fate of US journalist Austin Tice, the has been missing in Syria since 2012 and may be detained by the Syrian regime.

According to "al-Akhbar", the Washington delegation offered to withdraw all US troops from Syria on the condition that, in return, the Iranian troops be withdrawn from southern Syria, the US be involved in oil supplies in eastern Syria, and information to get foreign terrorists in the country. The Syrians had rejected such steps as premature, but promised further talks.

Mamluk is said to have declared a normalization of relations between the US and Syria as a precondition for cooperation on security issues.

As part of its fight against IS, the US has deployed several hundred special forces in eastern Syria to support the Kurdish-Arab SDF alliance. The anti-IS mission will be coordinated with Assad's Allied Russia, but there are no official US contacts with the Syrian government.

The secret talks with the leaders of the intelligence apparatus in Damascus come at a time when the regime has frankly announced that thousands of dissidents in Syrian prisons have been tortured to death in recent years. The interlocutors of the US delegation are among those responsible for the persecution and killing of Syrian opponents of the regime.