Jordan says to host Syria-US meeting on reconstruction

Kuwait Times

4 days ago

AMMAN, Jordan: Jordan will host a meeting between the United States and Syria to discuss the situation in the war-ravaged country and explore reconstruction efforts, Amman's foreign ministry said Sunday.
The meeting on Tuesday, which will be attended by Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Al-Shaibani and US special envoy for Syria Thomas Barrack, 'will discuss the situation in Syria and ways to support the process of rebuilding Syria on foundations that guarantee its security, stability and sovereignty', according to a statement. It will be a continuation of discussions held between the officials in Amman on July 19 about deadly clashes in the Druze-majority Syrian province of Sweida.
Responding to the announcement of the meeting, Barrack expressed in a post on X 'our collective determination to move toward a future in which Syria and all of its people can live in peace, security, and prosperity'. The violence between Druze fighters and Sunni Bedouins in July ultimately drew the intervention of government forces and tribal fighters who came to support the Bedouins, as well as the Zionist military, which carried out strikes in support of the Druze.
A ceasefire put an end to the week of bloodshed—which killed 1,400 people, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights—but the situation remained tense, flaring into violence again in August. Syria's minority communities have expressed concerns for their safety since December, when an Islamist-led offensive toppled longtime ruler Bashar Al-Assad, who had presented himself as a protector of minorities. While the new Syrian authorities have repeatedly stated their intent to protect all of the country's ethnic and religious groups, the killing of more than 1,700 mostly Alawite civilians along the coast in March and the violence in Sweida have raised doubts about their ability to manage sectarian tensions.
Meanwhile, a Syrian government official said Saturday that authorities would not participate in planned talks in Paris on integrating the Kurdish semi-autonomous administration into the Syrian state and demanded future negotiations be held in Damascus. The move came a day after the Kurdish administration, which controls swathes of the north and northeast, held a conference involving several Syrian minority communities, the first such event since Islamists overthrew longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December.
Participants included the head of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) Mazloum Abdi, who on March 10 signed a deal with President Ahmed Al-Sharaa to integrate the Kurds' civil and military institutions into the state. The conference's final statement called for 'a democratic constitution that... establishes a decentralized state', guaranteeing the participation of all components of Syrian society.
Damascus has previously rejected calls for decentralization. 'This conference was a blow to current negotiating efforts, and based on this, (the government) will not participate in any meetings scheduled in Paris,' state news agency SANA quoted an unidentified government official as saying.
The government 'calls on international mediators to move all negotiations to Damascus, as this is the legitimate, national location for dialogue among Syrians', the official said. Late last month, Syria, France and the United States said they agreed to convene talks in Paris 'as soon as possible' on implementing the March 10 agreement. Recent sectarian clashes in south Syria's Druze-majority Sweida province and massacres of the Alawite community on Syria's coast in March have deepened Kurdish concerns as progress on negotiations with Damascus has largely stalled. - AFP