Blinken calls Syrian humanitarian situation 'untenable'
At a meeting of the members of the US D-ISIS coalition in Rome, the US secretary of state makes appeal for "stabilization."
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met in Rome today with representatives of the 83-member coalition against the Islamic State (IS) to reinforce Washington’s stance on the conflict in Syria.
Blinken and Italy’s Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio chaired the conference, the first such meeting under the Biden administration.
Current US officials have largely carried over the approach developed during the Trump administration, namely leaving US troops to indefinitely occupy oil- and agriculture-rich northeast Syria while economically isolating the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
The policy remains in limbo amid indirect negotiations with Iranian officials in Vienna. Though strictly focused on fighting IS, the US military’s continued presence in Syria — and the State Department’s isolation policy toward Damascus — have been influenced by the ambitions of both Iran and Russia in the country and the wider region.
