Al Watan, the pro-government daily newspaper in Syria, confirmed yesterday that there have in fact been ongoing discussions between the Syrian government and the Trump White House on the fates of two Americans believed by the U.S. side to be held in Syria, as first reported by the Wall Street Journal on Oct. 18. According to a report in Al Masdar, the newspaper said that the sources revealed that both Roger Carstens, U.S. Special Envoy of the President for the kidnapped, and Kesh Patel, U.S. Assistant to the President, visited Damascus in August and met Gen. Ali Mamlouk, who is the head of the National Security Bureau in his office in Damascus. The U.S. officials reportedly discussed a wide range of issues and presented a number of offers and requests.
“This is not the first visit by high-ranking American officials, and that it was preceded by three similar visits to Damascus during the past months and years,” Al Watan's sources said. The U.S. officials were reportedly “surprised” by the Syrian position that “neither discussion nor cooperation with Washington before discussing the file of the withdrawal of the American occupation forces from eastern Syria and the emergence of real signs of this withdrawal on the ground, and that Damascus refused to discuss American sanctions.”
The Al Watan sources also indicated that “Damascus is wary of the pattern of these American visits as it does not trust them or their possible results, especially since the Syrian leadership is aware of the influence of the American lobbies on American Presidents, their decisions, and their general policies.”
However, the fact of repeated visits by presidential envoys (rather than from the State Department), indicates far more serious issues are under discussion, more in keeping with President Donald Trump’s efforts to get out of the civil war in Syria, repeatedly stymied by the Pentagon and the State Department.
