Blinken meets Arab ministers amid uncertainty over Syria transition

Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Saturday met with Arab ministers in Jordan to discuss how to assist a political transition in Syria, nearly a week after rebels toppled the dictatorship of Bashar Assad.

The Arab countries called for an end to hostilities in Syria and said they would support the transitional government there, according to Jordan’s Foreign Ministry.

The abrupt demise of the Assad government in Syria has prompted uncertainty over how the new interim administration there can manage a transition in a country shattered by 13 years of civil war and decades of repression.

It is another upheaval in a region already reeling from more than a year of war and has set in motion a realignment with implications for Turkey, Israel, Iran and Lebanon. It also affects the Russian government, which has given refuge to Assad.

Blinken met Saturday with foreign ministers from Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Egypt, as well as the caretaker prime minister of Lebanon and secretary-general of the Arab League, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, according to Jordan’s Foreign Ministry. Turkey, the United Nations and the European Union also participated, but representatives of Syria’s new leadership did not attend.

Blinken’s tour of the Middle East has included stops in the Turkish capital, Ankara, and the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, as the United States assesses the fallout from Assad’s ouster.

During his stop Friday in Baghdad, Blinken stressed to Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani that Iraq should be vigilant about any Iranian attempt to funnel weapons through the country to pro-Iranian militias within Syria that might use them for attacks there.

In response, al-Sudani told Blinken that Iraq was determined not to be dragged into any fights outside its borders, according to a senior U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomacy.

In another ripple effect of the rebel takeover in Syria, Russian forces appeared Friday to be packing up some military equipment at an air base near the Syrian city of Latakia in a possible prelude to a broader withdrawal.

Israel has seized an opportunity created by the collapse of the Assad dynasty, bombing weapons stores and other targets in Syria to eliminate what it says are potential threats and also seizing territory in the country near the disputed Golan Heights.

Syria on Friday condemned Israel’s attack and called on the UN Security Council to compel the Israeli government to cease any further attacks.