Blinken in Mideast to discuss Syrian transition

AQABA, Jordan — Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Jordan on Thursday as part of a Middle East trip to promote an “inclusive, Syrian-led” government transition in Damascus and meet with leaders of neighboring nations to try to get them on board, the State Department said.

“All of these conversations are looking to bring all the countries in the region together, as well as beyond the region, in a unified approach to supporting the Syrian people as they emerge from this dictatorship,” Blinken told reporters Thursday after meeting with Jordan’s king and foreign minister. Later Thursday, he also met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Blinken previously said the U.S. government would “recognize and fully support” the new Syrian government if the transition process is inclusive and transparent.

The rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which led the assault that toppled Bashar al-Assad’s regime and was formed as an offshoot of al-Qaeda, faces the challenges of consolidating control over a patchwork of rebel forces and demonstrating political inclusivity.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan also met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel on Thursday to discuss Gaza ceasefire negotiations, Netanyahu’s office said.

A former Egyptian official with knowledge of the discussions, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomacy, said Hamas gave Israel a list of the names of living hostages in Gaza, in a goodwill gesture meant to pave the way to a ceasefire deal. The official said the group was willing to abandon previous demands that Israeli forces withdraw completely from the Gaza Strip.

Here’s what else to know:

• Israel reiterated Thursday that it is expanding airstrikes in Syria and advancing forces across the border to protect Israeli security. France has called on Israel to withdraw its troops from the buffer zone separating the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights from Syrian territory.
• The Israel Defense Forces said Thursday that its strikes in Syria have destroyed more than 90 percent of the country’s aerial defense systems. Earlier this week, Israel said it had destroyed most of Syria’s navy.
• The political affairs department of HTS said Thursday that it would “cooperate directly with the U.S. administration to complete the search for the American citizens who were disappeared by the former Assad regime.” It said the search for long-missing U.S. freelance journalist Austin Tice is “ongoing.”
• 1.1 million people, most of them women and children, have been displaced in Syria since Nov. 27, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, also known as OCHA.
• U.S.-backed Kurdish forces said early Wednesday that they agreed to withdraw from the northern Syrian city of Manbij following a U.S. mediation effort, after fighting Turkish-backed forces for control of the city. The Washington Post could not immediately verify the claims.⍐