Blinken seeks to unify Mideast nations in support of peaceful Syria transition

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is wrapping up a visit to Turkey with talks with Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Friday as he presses ahead with efforts to unify Middle East nations in support of a peaceful political transition in Syria.

On the second stop of his latest Mideast trip — his 12th since the Israel-Hamas war erupted last year but first since the weekend ouster of Syrian President Bashar Assad — Blinken saw Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan late Thursday to try to bring Turkey into a consensus to prevent Syria from collapsing into wider turmoil.

The outgoing Biden administration is particularly concerned that a power vacuum in Syria could exacerbate already heightened tensions in the region, which is already wracked by multiple conflicts, and create conditions for the Islamic State group to regain territory and influence.

The U.S. has backed a Kurdish rebel group, the Syrian Defense Forces, for years in the anti-Islamic State campaign but Turkey sees it as threat and has repeatedly warned that it could launch major military operations against it.

In his meeting with Erdogan, Blinken stressed the importance of continuing the fight against the Islamic State while also supporting a Syrian transition that protects the rights of women and minorities and moves to secure and destroy suspected chemical weapons stocks.

Blinken “emphasized the need to ensure the coalition to defeat ISIS can continue to execute its critical mission,” the State Department said.

Later Friday, Blinken is to return to Aqaba, Jordan, where he began his current trip, for meetings on Saturday with Arab foreign ministers and senior officials from 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 achieve a transitional process … which meets the aspirations of the brotherly Syrian people, ensures the reconstruction of Syrian state institutions, and preserves Syria’s unity, territorial integrity, sovereignty, security, stability, and the rights of all its citizens,” the Jordanian foreign ministry said.