Qatar opens contact with Syria's HTS group

Qatari diplomats spoke with Syria's leading rebel faction, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, on Monday, an official briefed on the developments told Reuters, as regional states race to open contact with the group after its rapid offensive toppled Bashar al-Assad.

Qatar plans to speak with Mohamed al-Bashir, an HTS leader, on Tuesday, the day after he was appointed to lead Syria's transitional administration, the official said.

"The focus is on the need for HTS and other groups to maintain calm and preserve Syria's public institutions during the transition period," the official said.

Governments across the region are scrambling to forge new links with HTS and other rebel groups involved in the offensive that seized control of much of Syria. Assad fled to Russia, after 13 years of civil war and more than 50 years of his family's rule.

Qatar's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters requests for comment about the contacts with HTS, a group formerly allied with Al Qaeda and which is designated a terrorist organization by the US, European Union, Turkey and the UN.

Mohammed Al-Khulaifi, Minister of State at Qatar's foreign ministry, said late on Monday they are communicating with "various parties on the ground" in Syria, without specifying who.

"Qatar has always kept its doors open to everyone, in line with its foreign policy," Khulaifi said in comments broadcast on Al Jazeera's Arabic network.

Assad's main regional ally Iran also opened a direct line of communication with rebels in Syria's new leadership, a senior Iranian official told Reuters, citing the need to "prevent a hostile trajectory" between the countries. It was not clear if Iran's contacts were with HTS or another Syrian rebel faction.

Qatar's outreach to HTS follows a meeting hosted by the Qatari prime minister late on Saturday, which included foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia and Egypt, as well as Syria's neighbours Turkey, Jordan and Iraq, alongside top diplomats from Iran and Russia, another Assad ally.