U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken looks on as he receives the Royal Order of the Polar Star ahead of the start of the 31st Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Ministerial summit, in Ta'Qali, Malta, Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024. (Alberto Pizzoli/Pool Photo via AP)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Antony Blinken is returning to the Middle East this week on his 12th visit since the Israel-Hamas war erupted last year but his first since the ouster of Syrian President Bashar Assad. The upheaval in Syria has sparked new fears of instability in a region wracked by three conflicts despite a ceasefire agreement in Lebanon.

Blinken will travel to Jordan and Turkey on Thursday and Friday for talks expected to focus largely on Syria but also touch on long-elusive hopes for a deal to end the fighting in Gaza that has devastated the Palestinian territory since October 2023.

The State Department said Blinken would meet Jordanian officials, including King Abdullah II, in the port city of Aqaba on Thursday before flying to Ankara for meetings with Turkish officials Friday. Other stops in the region are possible, officials said.

Blinken was departing after Republican lawmakers grilled him for longer than expected during testy congressional testimony Wednesday about the U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.

The Biden administration has sent a series of officials to the Middle East, including national security adviser Jake Sullivan this week, as it navigates more volatility in the region in its last few weeks in office and as President-elect Donald Trump has said the U.S. should stay out of the Syrian conflict. The military has unleashed airstrikes and kept U.S. troops in Syria to prevent the Islamic State militant group from reconstituting in the upheaval.

On his visit, Blinken “will reiterate the United States’ support for an inclusive, Syrian-led transition to an accountable and representative government,” department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.

“He will discuss the need for the transition process and new government in Syria to respect the rights of minorities, facilitate the flow of humanitarian assistance, prevent Syria from being used as a base of terrorism or posing a threat to its neighbors, and ensure that chemical weapons stockpiles are secured and safely destroyed,” Miller said.

Blinken said Tuesday the U.S. would be willing to recognize and fully support a new Syrian government that met those criteria. U.S. officials say they are not actively reviewing the foreign terrorist organization designation of the main Syrian rebel group but stressed they are not barred from speaking to members of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, known as HTS, which was once an al-Qaida affiliate.

Blinken then spoke by phone with the foreign ministers of Egypt, Jordan, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates to underscore the administration’s position on Syria. He also reiterated the urgent need for a ceasefire in Gaza that releases the hostages taken by Hamas in its attack that launched the war and sets the stage for a “day after” plan for the governance, security and reconstruction of the Palestinian enclave.

Blinken will be the latest senior U.S. official to trek to the Middle East since Assad fled to Russia over the weekend as Democratic President Joe Biden prepares to leave the White House on Jan. 20 and Trump takes over.

Sullivan is in Israel and expected to travel on to Egypt and Qatar afterward. The commander of U.S. forces in the region, Army Gen. Erik Kurilla, visited American troops in Syria and then leaders in Iraq on Tuesday, and he was in Lebanon on Wednesday.

Two top State Department officials — John Bass, undersecretary of state for political affairs, and Barbara Leaf, assistant secretary of state for Near East affairs — have been in the region since the weekend.

Trump, who has spoken of his desire to see the conflicts end before he is back in the White House, has sent his designated Mideast envoy, Stephen Witkoff, to the region.

News from © The Associated Press, 2024