The United States Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, is continuing to try to unite the countries of the Middle East in supporting a peaceful political change in Syria.
He is meeting Friday with Turkey’s foreign minister after talks with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to try to bring Turkey to an agreement to prevent Syria from collapsing into wider violence. Blinken’s twelfth trip to the Mideast since the Israeli-Hamas war in Gaza began last year but the first since the ouster of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
The Biden administration is very concerned that the lack of control in Syria could increase the tensions that have already increased in the region and create the conditions for the Islamic State group to retake the region with dignity.
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The conflict between Israel and Hamas has plunged Gaza into a major humanitarian crisis. The Israeli attack has killed more than 44,800 Palestinians in Gaza, more than half of them women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not say how many were soldiers. The Israeli army claims to have killed more than 17,000 soldiers, without providing evidence.
The war in Gaza started with an attack on October 7, 2023 by Hamas in the south of Israel in which about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed and about 250 others were taken hostage. Another 100 prisoners are still inside Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead.
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Blinken seeks to unite the countries of the Middle East in support of a peaceful political transition in Syria
ANKARA – The US Secretary of State, Mr. Antony Blinken, is wrapping up his trip to Turkey on Friday in talks with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Hakan Fidan, as he continues to try to unite the countries of the Middle East in supporting a peaceful political change in Syria.
On the second stop of his latest trip to the Mideast – the twelfth since the start of the Israel-Hamas war last year but the first since the weekend ousting of Syrian President Bashar Assad – Blinken saw Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan late Thursday to try to bring Turkey to an agreement. to prevent Syria from collapsing into full-scale violence.
The Biden administration is very concerned that the lack of sanctions in Syria could exacerbate the already escalating conflict in the region, which has already been torn apart by many conflicts, and create the conditions for the Islamic State group to retake the region with dignity.
The US has backed a Kurdish rebel group, the Syrian Defense Forces, for years in the anti-Islamic State campaign but Turkey sees it as a threat and has long warned it could launch a major military offensive.
In his meeting with Erdogan, Blinken emphasized the importance of continuing the fight against Islamic State while also supporting the Syrian reform that protects the rights of women and children and moves to protect and destroy suspected chemical weapons.
Blinken “stressed the importance of ensuring that the coalition to defeat ISIS can continue to fulfill its mission,” the State Department said.
Later Friday, Blinken will return to Aqaba, Jordan, where he began his trip, for meetings on Saturday with Arab foreign ministers and senior officials of the European Union, the Arab League and the United Nations.
Those meetings will “discuss ways to support a comprehensive political process led by Syrians to implement change … that meets the aspirations of the Syrian brothers, guarantees the reconstruction of the institutions of the Syrian government, and protects the unity of Syria, territorial integrity, governance, security, stability, and the rights of all citizens.” ,” Jordan’s foreign ministry said.
Turkey reopens its embassy in Syria
ANKARA, Turkey – Turkey has set a temporary deadline to open its embassy in Syria, the Turkish state news agency reported.
The Turkish Embassy in Damascus had stopped working in 2012 due to the increasing security problems during the Syrian civil war and civil servants and their families were returned to Turkey.
Anadolu Agency said late Thursday that Turkey appointed Burhan Koroglu, its ambassador to Mauritania, to the post.
2 UN aid convoys attacked in Gaza, US food agency says
UNITED NATIONS- – Two UN aid convoys have been attacked in Gaza, making it impossible for humanitarian agencies to operate without putting workers and civilians at risk, the UN food agency says.
On Wednesday, a group of 70 trucks from Kerem Shalom that were waiting for workers to secure food and other aid went to central Gaza when Israeli forces attacked a nearby humanitarian aid station, the UN World Food Program said Thursday.
So far more than 50 people are said to have died in the attack, including civilians and security personnel who were expected to ensure the safety of the convoy, WFP said.
Rome said the convoy was forced to continue from Kerem Shalom to the center of Gaza without security arrangements, using the Philadelphia corridor, a route controlled by Israel that had recently been approved and used twice.
En route, WFP said, conflict and insecurity caused a loss of communication with the convoy for more than 12 hours. “In the end, the trucks were found but all the food and aid was stolen,” the UN agency said.
In a second incident, Israeli soldiers approached a WFP group leaving Kissufim crossing into central Gaza, fired warning shots, conducted a heavy security check, and briefly detained the drivers and workers, the organization said.
“Because the trucks were delayed, four out of five trucks were lost and stolen,” WFP said.
The UN chief urges Israel to stop attacking Syria
UNITED NATIONS – The head of the United Nations has a message for Israel: Stop the attack on Syria.
Secretary-General António Guterres is deeply concerned about several hundred Israeli airstrikes in several areas of Syria and emphasizes “the need to reduce violence in all parts of the country,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters on Thursday.
The Israeli army said on Tuesday it had carried out more than 350 strikes in Syria in the past 48 hours, hitting “many of the weapons stockpiles” in the country to prevent them from falling into the hands of extremists.
Israel also agreed to enter a buffer zone inside Syria following the overthrow of President Bashar Assad last week. The buffer zone was established after Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1973 war.
Dujarric said Guterres condemns all actions that violate the 1974 ceasefire agreement between the two countries that is still in force. And the UN chief calls on the parties to support the agreement and end “all unauthorized presence in the separation zone” and refrain from any action that undermines stability and stability in the Golan Heights, the spokesman said.