What to know about US push for stability

Foreign delegates attend the meeting of the Arab Contact Group on Syria, in Jordan. Pic/AFP

US 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 spiralling out of control after the sudden ouster of President Bashar Assad. 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.

A new Syria

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 US 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 in the Jordanian port city of Aqaba.

Stability to deter IS 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 neighbour 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 US helped broker an agreement between the Turks and one of those Kurdish groups, the Syrian Defense Forces, after Assad's departure.

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