Americas...:US Reaches Out To Syrian Extremists

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A US official confirmed Wednesday that the United States has reached out to extremists among the Syrian opposition.
However, she stated that Washington seeks, from this contact, to reach a political solution to the Syria's war.

"But there have been no contacts with groups such as al-Nusra that are blacklisted by Washington as terror organizations," deputy State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf stressed.

She further revealed "We engage with a broad cross-section of Syrian people and political and military leaders in the opposition, including a variety of "Islamist" groups."
"We do not engage with terrorists, with groups... that are designated as terrorist organizations."

Harf spoke after The Wall Street Journal reported that a senior US envoy had been sent to meet with key militias following the emergence of a new alliance in Syria last month.

The Front is now Syria's largest armed opposition, grouping tens of thousands of fighters.

The alliance has said it wants to create a so-called "Islamic state," but insisted it would protect minorities and not create an "oppressive, authoritarian system."
According to the US official, the goal of the contacts was to persuade some of the militants to back talks due to be held in Geneva on January 22, Western officials told the US daily.

Harf said the talks were "in response to a reality that the opposition is made up of a number of groups, some are "Islamist" groups, and that in order to get a political solution here, because there is no military solution, we need to get these groups to buy into the notion that there should be a (political) solution."
She refused to specify, however, with which groups the United States was speaking.

But Harf agreed that the "overall goal" was to get a broad section of the opposition to sit down at the negotiating table.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team