The UN’s Envoy to Syria has urged world leaders to collaborate to ensure the country doesn't collapse following the downfall of Bashar al Assad.
Geir Pedersen was meeting U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken in Jordan, as top diplomats from the EU, Turkiye, and Arab nations gather. AP correspondent Philip Crowther is in Damascus.
#Syria #UN
Geir Pedersen was meeting U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken in Jordan, as top diplomats from the EU, Turkiye, and Arab nations gather. AP correspondent Philip Crowther is in Damascus.
#Syria #UN
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00:00The overarching fear is still that of the power vacuum, that essentially Syria does find itself,
00:06and despite a pretty orderly transition being underway from the fall of Bashar al-Assad
00:11just a week ago, to an interim government that does include some cabinet members from the
00:17previous regime, it has been a quick and pretty orderly transition. Still, though,
00:21there is that fear that in this relative power vacuum, and certainly a moment of uncertainty,
00:27that there could be a resurgence, not just of Islamists, which there certainly is,
00:33because they will now be in power here in Damascus, but also of other terror groups,
00:38the Islamic State Organization being just one. It's also worth looking at what other countries
00:43are worried about happening here in Syria and why they are getting involved, and Israel and
00:48Turkey are the two countries who have essentially boots on the ground. Israel, with its airstrikes
00:55and its troops in the buffer zone between Israel and Syria, says that it wants to neutralize
01:01potential threats and also wants to make sure that weapons from the Syrian army that essentially has
01:07disintegrated don't fall into extremist hands. I mentioned Turkey as well. Turkey is certainly
01:13a country that is trying to take advantage of this new Syria that is coming out of Damascus.
01:20Its foreign minister saying very clearly it wants to eliminate the US-backed Kurdish militia,
01:25that that is its strategic goal. Turkey also making things very clear here in Damascus by
01:32opening its embassy, reopening its embassy that was closed since 2012 and the start of the civil
01:37war here in Damascus. It certainly believes that this new rebel leadership of Damascus
01:43can be to its advantage. In the meantime, the United States worried about other things. It
01:49has been fighting the Islamic State organization in Syria for quite a long while now and is worried
01:54that there might be a resurgence thereof during Islamist rule here in Syria.