AQABA, Jordan—Top US officials were in the Middle East on Thursday, pushing for stability in Syria and an end to Israel’s 14-month war in the Gaza Strip in a last-ditch diplomatic push by the outgoing Biden administration before President-elect Donald Trump takes office in a few weeks.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Jordan and Turkey for talks on how to ensure a peaceful transition of power in Syria following the ouster of longtime President Bashar Assad, while White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan was in Israel in a bid to wrap up a ceasefire with Hamas militants.
The war erupted with Hamas’ October 7, 2023, cross-border attack, in which militants killed some 1,200 people in Israel and took 250 others hostage. Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed nearly 45,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza health officials, caused widespread displacement and led to severe hunger across the territory.
He also said there has been good cooperation with the incoming Trump administration, with widespread agreement between them. Any deal would include the release of hostages held by Hamas, an exchange of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel and a surge in badly needed humanitarian aid into Gaza. Israel says Hamas is holding about 100 hostages—at least one-third of whom are believed to have died.As Sullivan was in Israel, Blinken met with Jordanian and Turkish leaders to push for a peaceful transition of power in post-Assad Syria.
The leader of Syria’s biggest rebel faction is a former al-Qaida commander whose Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group is poised to chart the country’s future. The US and the U.N. have designated the hardline Sunni Islamist group a terrorist organization.
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