Lammy: UK had 'diplomatic contact' with HTS

UK Foreign minister David Lammy has confirmed that Britain has had "diplomatic contact" with the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group.

"HTS remains a proscribed organisation, but we can have diplomatic contact and so we do have diplomatic contact as you would expect," Lammy told broadcasters on Sunday.

"Using all the channels that we have available, and those are diplomatic and, of course, intelligence-led channels, we seek to deal with HTS where we have to."

On Saturday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States has had direct contact with HTS.

Reporting by Reuters