The U.S. is reportedly working with the Islamist rebel group that overthrew the Syrian government last week to find an American journalist being held hostage.

The collapse of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, which sent him fleeing to Russia, and the seizure of power by the jihadist rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham have raised fears of instability in an already tense region.

HTS, which was once affiliated with al-Qaeda but split from the group, remains on the State Department’s terror list.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken has held meetings across the Middle East, including in Turkey and Iraq, to ​​ease the transition, signaling a U.S. desire to ensure stability in Syria.

“Syria has changed more in less than a week than in any other week in the last half century,” Blinken told reporters.

“Our message to the Syrian people is: We want them to succeed and we are ready to help them do so.”

A focus of his meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Friday was combating the resurgence of the Islamic State in Syria.

Diplomats from the United States, the Arab League and Turkey met in Jordan on Saturday to discuss Syria’s transition, the Wall Street Journal reported, but no representatives of Syria itself took part in those talks.

After the meetings, Middle East leaders said in a statement that they agreed to support “a peaceful transition process” in Syria “in which all political and social forces are represented.”

Blinken also said he had “made it clear to everyone” how important it was to find missing American journalist Austin Tice.

The freelancer and Marine veteran disappeared in 2012 while covering the Syrian civil war.

Tice, 43, has not been heard from since, although his family announced last week that they had information that he was alive and that they had new hopes for his return given the changes in Syria.

New reports revealed that Tice was seen twice after his arrest: once in 2013, after he briefly escaped captivity, and again in 2016, when he was transported to a hospital in Damascus.

Tice’s escape from prison is the strongest evidence the U.S. government has that forces loyal to Assad were holding Tice, the Reuters report said.

Meanwhile, Israel is also taking advantage of Assad’s fall to find the Syrian burial site of famous spy Eli Cohen, the Times of Israel reported, citing a Lebanese media report.

Cohen, who was born in Egypt, infiltrated the highest ranks of the Syrian military in the 1960s and passed secrets to the Israeli government in what is considered one of the most successful intelligence operations in Israel’s history.

Cohen was caught and hanged in Damascus in 1965.

Separately, Israel launched a series of airstrikes on military sites in Damascus on Saturday. This is his latest attempt to destroy Syria’s military capabilities and prevent weapons from falling into the hands of enemy forces.

With post wires