Antony Blinken to meet with European counterparts on Syria on Thursday
United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken will meet several of his European counterparts in Rome on Thursday to address the situation in Syria. Mr. Blinken “will meet with European counterparts to advocate a peaceful, inclusive, Syrian-led political transition”said a press release released while the Secretary of State was in Seoul on Monday. The names of the participants have not been released by American diplomacy.
After South Korea, Blinken is scheduled to travel to Japan and France, and join US President Joe Biden in Italy, in what will likely be the US leader’s final foreign trip before the inauguration of Donald Trump.
Western countries, which welcomed thousands of Syrian refugees during the thirteen years of civil war which tore the country apart, are seeking to establish contacts with the new power which overthrew Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad in December during a lightning offensive.
The heads of French and German diplomacy, Jean-Noël Barrot and Annalena Baerbock, met the new leader Ahmed Al-Charaa on Friday; it was the first meeting between officials of major Western powers and the Islamist number one.
“It is now necessary to establish a political dialogue including all ethnic and religious groups and including all citizens, that is to say in particular also the women of this country”declared the German Foreign Minister on this occasion.
