Blinken stresses "imperative" need to stop ISIS, in talks with Turkish foreign minister
Secretary of State Antony Blinken stressed to Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Friday the need for continued efforts to stop a resurgence of ISIS in Syria.
In their meeting in Ankara, the top US diplomat said he raised the “imperative” of such efforts continuing, noting the work done by both nations over many years “to ensure the elimination of the territorial caliphate of ISIS.”
In his remarks following the meeting, Blinken did not explicitly mention the spate of fighting between Turkish-backed fighters and the US’ key anti-ISIS partner, the Syrian Democratic Forces.
Key background: On Thursday, Blinken noted that Turkey “has real and clear interests, particularly when it comes to the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) and terrorism,” calling it “an enduring threat.”
“At the same time, again, we want to avoid sparking any kinds of additional conflicts inside of Syria at a time when we want to see this transition to an interim government into a better way forward for Syria,” he told the press in Jordan. “And part of that also has to be ensuring that ISIS doesn’t rear its ugly head again.”
“And critical to making sure that doesn’t happen is the so-called SDF, the Syrian Democratic Forces, that we’ve been supporting,” added Blinken.
“They’ve been critical in making sure that ISIS is kept at bay; critical also to guarding the detention facilities where thousands of foreign terrorist fighters have been detained for years, keeping them off of the battlefield, keeping them away from rejoining ISIS. That’s a critical mission, and it’s one that we have to see be pursued going forward.”
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