By Simon Machine gun (JO 🙂 and Suleiman Al-Khalidi
AQABA, Jordan (Reuters) – Top diplomats from the United States, Turkey, the European Union and Arab nations agreed that a new government in Syria should respect minority rights, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Saturday. , after talks in Jordan and direct conversations. contacts with the rebels who overthrew President Bashar al-Assad.
The meetings came as regional and global powers fight for influence over any government that replaces Assad, forced to flee a week ago.
Blinken told a news conference that the group had agreed to a joint statement that also 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 “affirmed full support for the unity, territorial integrity and sovereignty of Syria,” a comment that appeared aimed at Israel, which has entered Syria beyond a previously agreed buffer zone since the fall of Assad. .
“Today’s agreement sends a unified message to the new interim authority and the parties in Syria on the principles crucial to ensuring much-needed support and recognition,” Blinken said.
Blinken also said that US officials had had “direct contact” with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and had urged them and other rebel groups to help locate US journalist Austin Tice, who was detained in Syria in 2012. The United States has also shared with actors in Syria what it wants to see from the country’s transition, he added.
Syria’s neighbor Jordan hosted Saturday’s meeting in Aqaba. Russia and Iran, who were Assad’s main supporters, were not invited.
Blinken, UN special envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen and EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and the foreign ministers of Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq , Lebanon, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar gathered around a circular table. in a Jordanian government guest house. There was no Syrian representative at the table.
Arab diplomats earlier met separately and issued a statement calling for a peaceful and inclusive political transition leading to elections and a new constitution.
Arab diplomats attending the talks told Reuters they were seeking assurances from Türkiye that it supported this, as well as preventing the partition of Syria along sectarian lines.
Türkiye and the United States, both NATO members, have conflicting interests when it comes to some of the rebels. Turkish-backed rebels in northern Syria have clashed with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
The SDF, which controls some of Syria’s largest oil fields, is the main ally in a 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 who have fought against the Turkish state for 40 years and whom it outlaws.
Blinken told Turkish officials during a visit to Ankara on Thursday and Friday that the Islamic State should not be able to regroup and that the SDF should not be distracted from its role in protecting camps housing IS fighters, according to a US official. Turkish leaders agreed, the U.S. delegation official said.
Fidan told Turkish television later on Friday that eliminating the YPG was Turkey’s “strategic goal” and urged the group’s commanders to leave Syria.