Top diplomats from the United States, Turkey, the European Union and Arab states have agreed that a new government in Syria must respect minority rights, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said Saturday after talks in Jordan and direct contact with rebels who ousted the president. Bashar al-Assad.
The meetings come as regional and global powers try to influence whatever government replaces Assad, who was forced to flee a week ago.
Blinken said at a press conference that the group had agreed on a joint statement that calls for an inclusive and representative government that respects the rights of minorities and does not provide “a base for terrorist groups.”
The joint statement also reaffirmed “full support for Syria’s unity, territorial integrity and sovereignty,” a remark aimed at Israel, which has moved into Syria outside the buffer zone already agreed upon after Assad’s fall.
“Today’s agreement sends a unified message on principles important to gaining much-needed support and recognition for new interim powers and parties in Syria,” Blinken said.
Blinken also said US officials had “direct contact” with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and asked them and other rebel groups to help find US journalist Austin Tice, who was detained in Syria in 2012. It has shared with Syrian actors what it wants to see from the country’s transition, he added.
Syria’s neighbor Jordan was hosting Saturday’s gathering in Aqaba. Assad’s main backers, Russia and Iran, were not invited.
Blinken, UN Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen and EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kalas, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and the foreign ministers of Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Lebanon, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar met around a round table. at a Jordanian government guesthouse. There was no Syrian representative at the table.
Arab diplomats had previously met separately and issued a statement calling for a peaceful and inclusive political transition that would lead to elections and a new constitution. Arab diplomats attending the talks told Reuters they were seeking assurances from Turkey that it supported it, as well as to prevent the division of Syria along sectarian lines.
Turkey and the United States, both NATO members, have conflicting interests when it comes to some of the rebels. Turkey-backed rebels have clashed with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northern Syria.
The SDF, which controls some of Syria’s largest oil fields, is a key ally in the US coalition against Islamic State militants. It is led by the YPG militia, a group that Ankara sees as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants that have been fighting the Turkish state for 40 years and which it outlaws.
Blinken told Turkish officials during a visit to Ankara on Thursday and Friday that Islamic State cannot regroup and that the SDF should not deviate from its role in securing camps holding IS fighters, according to a US official. Turkish leaders agreed, the US delegation official said.
Fidan told Turkish TV later on Friday that eliminating the YPG was Turkey’s “strategic goal” and urged the group’s commanders to leave Syria.
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