WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken departed Wednesday for Jordan and later Turkey, seeking to rally regional countries around a common vision for Syria’s future following the ousting of longtime authoritarian ruler Bashar al-Assad.
Blinken is scheduled to visit Aqaba, Jordan, and Ankara, Turkey, where he will meet with leaders from key Arab and Muslim countries to discuss developments in Syria, Israel, Gaza, Lebanon and the broader region, according to the U.S. State Department.
A spokesperson said Blinken aims to secure consensus among regional leaders on key principles for Syria’s post-Assad transition. He said these include full respect for minority rights, the facilitation of humanitarian aid, the prevention of Syria becoming a haven for terrorism or a threat to its neighbors and the securing and safe destruction of chemical or biological weapons stockpiles.
Blinken has said that the United States will recognize a Syrian government that upholds those principles.
Speaking before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday, Blinken said he believes President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration will have an interest in preserving the gains made toward eliminating the “territorial caliphate” that the terror group known as Islamic State had established in Syria.
Trump and his team have said that the U.S. should not get involved in Syria.
“This is not our fight. Let it play out,” Trump wrote December 7 on Truth Social.
During a hearing earlier Wednesday that lasted more than four hours, Blinken told lawmakers, “If Syria goes the other way — if it fragments — we’re likely to see more mass migrations. We’re likely to see more places in Syria that become centers for terrorism and extremism, none of which is in our interest.”
In Aqaba, Blinken will meet with Jordan’s King Abdulla II and senior officials to discuss bilateral issues, highlight the U.S.-Jordan strategic partnership, and reaffirm U.S. support for regional stability.
In Ankara, Blinken will engage with senior Turkish officials to strengthen bilateral cooperation on shared priorities, including counterterrorism and regional stability, with NATO ally Turkey.
Some analysts argue that there is a strategic rationale, at least for now, in maintaining the current U.S. presence of about 900 U.S. troops in Syria to contain IS and prevent a resurgence of terrorist groups in the region.
“But getting involved in a major way is probably contrary to American interests. And of course, we really haven’t been involved in a major way in Syria from the beginning of the civil war. You know, over a decade ago,” said Thomas Graham, a former U.S. diplomat and now a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
On Tuesday, Blinken held talks with counterparts from Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Egypt, where he reiterated the need for a Syrian-led transition.
Meanwhile, on Thursday, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, or OPCW, will hold an emergency session to address the situation in Syria. The OPCW — the implementing body for the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention — said it is monitoring Syria with “special attention” to chemical weapons sites and has reminded the country of its duty to declare and destroy all banned weapons.
The U.S. State Department said it will await the session’s outcome to determine the next steps.
Syrian rebel leader Abu Mohammed al-Golani said on Wednesday that he would dissolve the security forces of the ousted Assad regime. He also said his group was working with international organizations to identify and secure possible sites where chemical weapons may be stored.
The U.S. responded to Golani’s remarks with caution.
Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh told reporters, “We welcome this type of rhetoric but … actions have to meet words as well.”
Also, U.S. President Joe Biden will join leaders of the Group of Seven leading industrial nations in a virtual summit on Friday to discuss Syria and other pressing issues in the Middle East.
Last Sunday, Syrian rebel groups toppled the Assad regime after a swift offensive of under two weeks, ending a decades-long reign of brutal oppression.
While many Syrians celebrate Assad’s departure, uncertainty looms over the nation’s future. The Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the dominant faction among opposition forces, is rapidly consolidating power. At the same time, foreign actors are vying for influence with the nascent government or seeking to limit its potential as a security threat.
Gerald Feierstein, director of the Arabian Peninsula Affairs Program at the Middle East Institute, told VOA, “The Turks are far more sympathetic to political Islam, and have longstanding ties to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and to Golani — not close, but they do have ties. … For the Gulf states, they’re going to be far more suspicious about which direction Damascus is going to be going.”
Feierstein noted that while there is currently “not a big gap” between Turkish and Gulf perspectives, this difference could widen over time if the new government in Damascus adopts a more hardline Islamist stance than expected.
Syria’s nearly 14-year civil war claimed 500,000 lives and displaced half of its 23 million prewar population. Millions of Syrians fled to neighboring countries such as Jordan, Turkey, Iraq and Lebanon, with many continuing their journey to Europe in search of safety.
