Antony Blinken: Biden Will ‘Recognize and Support’ a Syrian Government Arising from ‘Inclusive’ Jihadi-Led ProcessFrances Martel 11 Dec 2024
Secretary of State Antony Blinken will begin a brief trip to the Middle East on Wednesday with stops in Jordan and Turkey, the State Department announced following remarks from Blinken supporting the creation of a “credible, inclusive, and non-sectarian” government in Syria.
Blinken promised America would “recognize and fully support” a Syrian government that arises from “an inclusive and transparent process” to replace Bashar Assad, currently being led by an al-Qaeda offshoot led by a U.S.-wanted terrorist.
The longtime government of Syria under Iran-backed dictator Assad fell on Saturday as members of the jihadist al-Qaeda offshoot Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) arrived in Damascus, the national capital. HTS, formerly known as the Nusra Front, has long been one of the many factions fighting in the Syrian Civil War that began in 2011 and launched a new campaign to topple the regime in late November that proved rapidly successful.
Following Assad’s decision to flee to Moscow, Russia, this weekend, HTS leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani – now wishing to be referred to by his real name, Ahmed al Sharaa – positioned himself as the leader of a transition process to replace Assad with a government representative of the Arab Sunni majority of Syria.
HTS is a U.S.-designated terrorist organization and America has an outstanding $10 million bounty in place for information leading to the arrest al-Jolani’s (or al Sharaa’s) arrest. Global terrorist organizations such as Hamas and the Taliban have celebrated HTS and its success in ousting Assad this week.
Despite the rise of a jihadist organization in the face of the collapse of the brutal Assad regime, outgoing President Joe Biden has openly celebrated the developments in Syria and taken credit for them. An unnamed “senior administration official” told reporters on Monday that it was “impossible not to place” the fall of Assad “in the context” of decisions Biden made as president. In reality, the United States was not a major player in the events of the past month, as its top ally in Syria, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), has been embroiled in its own war against the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) militia.
Blinken issued a statement on Tuesday insisting that the United States would play no major political role in the future of Syria, but stood by to help whatever government arose from the collapse of the decades-old Assad regime.
“The United States reaffirms its full support for a Syrian-led and Syrian-owned political transition,” he wrote. “This transition process should lead to credible, inclusive, and non-sectarian governance that meets international standards of transparency and accountability.”
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