AQABA, Jordan (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has wrapped up perhaps his last Middle East as America’s top diplomat, with the aim of preventing Syria from spiraling out of control after the sudden ouster of President Bashar Assad.
Blinken was one of several senior U.S. officials traveling across the region in the Biden administration’s final weeks amid deep uncertainty in Washington and abroad over how Donald Trump will approach the Mideast when he takes office on Jan. 20, 2025.
Blinken held meetings Jordan, Turkey and Iraq with the aim of trying to shape the future of post-Assad Syria by forging consensus among regional partners and allies whose interests often diverge.
“We know that what happens inside of Syria can have powerful consequences well beyond its borders, from mass displacement to terrorism,” he told reporters Saturday in Aqaba, Jordan. “And we know that we can’t underestimate the challenges of this moment.”
The primary goal of his 11 previous trips to the region since the Israel-Hamas war began in October 2023 was securing a ceasefire in Gaza that resulted in the release of remaining hostages.
Now, suddenly, that wasn’t his priority and was being handled by President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, who traveled to Israel, Egypt and Qatar this week. Blinken said he used his own meetings to press forward on a ceasefire deal.
Biden’s team is running out of time to cement a legacy in the Middle East after drawing widespread criticism that it turned a blind eye to Israel’s military conduct and its treatment of civilians in Gaza. They did succeed in helping lead a push for a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon that, while tenuous, is holding.
Here are some takeaways from Blinken’s trip:
Charting a new course for Syria
While hopes remain for concluding a Gaza ceasefire by the time Biden leaves the White House, helping shape a new Syria may prove to be lower-hanging fruit.
Blinken left Washington just three days after Assad fled for Russia, a longtime ally. Blinken said his goal was to convince countries in the Mideast and elsewhere that they should commit to backing the U.S. view of how Syria should be run after decades of Assad family rule.
To that end, he said he had secured the backing of the 12 foreign ministers from the Arab League, Turkey and top officials from the European Union and United Nations who held an emergency meeting Saturday on Syria in the Jordanian port city of Aqaba.
They agreed that the new Syrian government should respect the rights of minorities and women, prevent terror groups from taking hold, ensure humanitarian aid reaches people in need, and secure and destroy any remaining Assad-era chemical weapons.
Blinken has promised that the United States would recognize and support a new government that met those principles.
Seeking stability to deter the Islamic State group
Syria is riven by partisan and sectarian infighting that led in part to rise of the Islamic State militant group in the first place.
Turkey, Syria’s neighbor to the north, is deeply suspicious of Syrian and Iraqi Kurds. Turkey deems them terrorists, although some of those Kurds have proved to be key American partners in the fight to destroy IS.
The U.S. helped broker an agreement between the Turks and one of those Kurdish groups, the Syrian Defense Forces, after Assad’s departure, although it’s unclear how long that can last.
“We have the urgency of now,” Blinken said Saturday. “The urgency of now is to ensure that the success that we’ve had in ending the territorial caliphate of ISIS … remains a critical mission,” he said, using a different acronym for the group.
The SDF runs detention facilities holding some 10,000 fighters, and Blinken said its role is key because “this is a moment of instability in which ISIS will seek to regroup and take advantage of.”
Just after Assad’s downfall, the U.S. struck about 75 IS targets in the Syrian desert in an effort to prevent the group from gaining a foothold. The U.S. also has about 900 troops in Syria to battle the group.
Facing Trump’s return to power
There are concerns in the region about how the incoming Trump administration will handle the Middle East, apart from deepening ties with Israel.
Trump has demanded the immediate release of hostages in Gaza, threatening on social media that otherwise there would be “HELL TO PAY,” and has urged the U.S. not to get involved in Syria.
Nonetheless, current U.S. officials believe the Republican is unlikely to abandon American military positions in Syria, as he had wanted to do during his first term. Their belief stems from the fact that Trump frequently takes credit for vanquishing IS by finishing the liberation of their territory that began during the Obama administration.
The threat of the possible return of IS would be too great for Trump risk, according to these officials. They say Iraq, which signed an agreement with the U.S. in September under which the U.S.-led anti-IS coalition will withdraw next year, is already hinting that conditions could force a change in that timetable.
On a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal, Sullivan expressed cautious optimism that conditions were ripe for halting the long-running conflict before the end of the Biden administration’s end.
“I wouldn’t be here now if I didn’t think this thing was just waiting until after Jan. 20,” he said this week.
Sullivan also said there has been good cooperation with the incoming Trump administration, with widespread agreement between them.
Searching for missing Americans
The Biden administration has made it a priority to find Austin Tice, an American journalist believed held in Syria for more than a decade. Since Assad’s ouster, the U.S. has redoubled efforts to find Tice and return him home.
Blinken said Saturday that the U.S. has been in direct contact with the rebels that ousted Assad, including about “the importance of helping find Austin Tice and bringing him home.”
Washington’s top hostage negotiator, Roger Carstens, traveled to Lebanon this week in hopes of getting information on Tice.
Meanwhile, U.S. officials said Friday that another American, Travis Timmerman, was transported by the U.S. military out of Syria, where he had disappeared seven months ago into Assad’s prison system. Timmerman was among the thousands released this week.
Officials say Timmerman, 29, was flown to Jordan on a U.S. military helicopter Friday, and it’s unclear where he may go next. He was detained after he crossed into Syria from Lebanon while on a Christian pilgrimage in June.
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