The United States has given its blessing to a plan by Syria’s new leadership to incorporate thousands of foreign jihadists, former rebel fighters, into the national army, provided that it does so transparently, US President Donald Trump’s envoy has said.

Three Syrian defense officials said that under the plan, some 3,500 foreign fighters, mainly Uighurs from China and neighboring countries, would join a newly formed unit, the 84th Syrian army division, which would also include Syrians.

Asked by Reuters in Damascus whether Washington approved the integration of foreign fighters into Syria’s new military, Thomas Barrack, the US ambassador to Turkey who was named Trump’s special envoy to Syria last month, said: “I would say there is an understanding, with transparency.”

He said it was better to keep the fighters, many of whom are “very loyal” to the new administration of Ahmed al-Sharaa, within a state project than to exclude them.

The fate of foreigners who joined Sharaa’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham rebels during the 13-year war between rebel groups and Syria’s Iran-backed President Bashar al-Assad has been one of the most fraught issues hindering a rapprochement with the West since HTS, a former affiliate of al-Qaeda, toppled Assad and took power last year.

At least until early May, the United States had been demanding that the new leadership broadly exclude foreign fighters from the security forces.

But Washington’s approach to Syria has changed sharply since Trump toured the Middle East last month and met with Sharaa in Riyadh, in the first such meeting between US and Syrian leaders in a quarter century. Following the meeting, Trump

© The Times of Israel