AQABA, Jordan — High diplomats from the US, the Arab League and Turkey are assembly in Jordan to debate plans and objectives to help Syria’s transition from the deposed authorities of Bashar Assad.
Some 12 international ministers and senior officers from the European Union and United Nations on Saturday gathered within the Jordanian port metropolis of Aqaba to attempt to forge consensus on what new management in Syria ought to prioritize. No Syrian representatives are set to attend, nonetheless.
The collapse of the Assad household’s greater than half-century of rule final week has sparked new fears of instability and turmoil in a unstable area already immersed within the Israel-Hamas battle in Gaza and hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon regardless of a tenuous ceasefire.
The U.S. can be making a renewed push for an ceasefire in Gaza, the place the warfare has plunged greater than 2 million Palestinians right into a extreme humanitarian disaster.
Israel’s warfare in opposition to Hamas has killed over 44,800 Palestinians in Gaza, greater than half of them ladies and youngsters, based on the Gaza Well being Ministry, which doesn’t say what number of had been combatants. The Israeli navy says it has killed over 17,000 militants, with out offering proof.
The October 2023 Hamas assault that sparked the warfare killed some 1,200 individuals in Israel, principally civilians, and round 250 others had been taken hostage. Some 100 hostages are nonetheless inside Gaza, a minimum of a 3rd of whom are believed to be lifeless.
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AQABA, Jordan — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says broad consensus exists amongst regional companions that Syria’s new authorities have to be inclusive, should respect ladies and minority rights, reject terrorism and safe and destroy suspected Assad-era chemical weapons stockpiles.
Blinken is wrapping up a three-country regional tour in Aqaba after visiting Iraq, Turkey and Jordan as soon as already this week.
Earlier Saturday in a gathering with U.N. Particular Envoy for Syria Geir Pederson, Blinken stated he anticipated to speak in regards to the challenges forward for Syria and “our willpower to work collectively to assist a Syrian-led transition the place the United Nations performs a essential function, significantly in terms of the availability of help, to the safety of minorities.”
Pederson agreed, saying: “What’s so essential in Syria is that we see a reputable and inclusive political course of that brings collectively all communities in Syria. And the second level is that we have to guarantee that state establishments don’t collapse, and that we get in humanitarian help as shortly as doable. And if we will obtain that, maybe there’s a new alternative for the Syrian individuals.”
In asserting Saturday’s conferences, the Jordanian Overseas Ministry stated the ministers would “focus on methods to assist a complete political course of led by Syrians to attain a transitional course of,” which “ensures the reconstruction of Syrian state establishments, and preserves Syria’s unity, territorial integrity, sovereignty, safety, stability, and the rights of all its residents.”
