{"id":198609,"date":"2021-11-01T12:00:14","date_gmt":"2021-11-01T12:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=198609"},"modified":"2024-09-23T14:38:53","modified_gmt":"2024-09-23T13:38:53","slug":"blinken-us-policy-is-to-oppose-the-reconstruction-of-syria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2021\/11\/blinken-us-policy-is-to-oppose-the-reconstruction-of-syria\/","title":{"rendered":"Blinken: US Policy Is to \u2018Oppose the Reconstruction of Syria\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p><em>The US Has Ruled Out Normalizing with Syria <\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><em>13 Oct 2021 &#8211; <\/em>Secretary of State Antony Blinken today <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.msn.com\/en-us\/news\/world\/us-rules-out-normalizing-with-syria-s-assad\/ar-AAPtPic?ocid=Peregrine\" >said the US position on Syria is to \u201coppose\u201d the country\u2019s reconstruction<\/a> and not support any attempts at normalization with the government of Bashar al-Assad.<\/p>\n<p>At a <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.state.gov\/secretary-antony-j-blinken-and-israeli-alternate-prime-minister-and-foreign-minister-yair-lapid-and-united-arab-emirates-foreign-minister-sheikh-abdullah-bin-zayed-al-nahyan-at-a-joint-press-availab\/\" >joint press conference<\/a> with his Israeli and UAE counterparts, Blinken said the US has not \u201cchanged our position to oppose the reconstruction of Syria until there is irreversible progress toward a political solution.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>More and more Arab countries are accepting that Assad isn\u2019t going anywhere and have taken steps to normalize, including Jordan, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/news.antiwar.com\/2021\/09\/30\/us-says-it-has-no-plans-to-normalize-relations-with-syria\/\" >which opened its border with Syria in September<\/a>. Blinken said the US does not intend to \u201cexpress any support for efforts to normalize relations or rehabilitate Mr. Assad\u201d or lift a \u201csingle sanction\u201d unless there is regime change in Damascus.<\/p>\n<p>US sanctions under the Caesar Act against Syria specifically target the energy and construction sectors to impede the country\u2019s ability to rebuild after 10 brutal years of war. The sanctions can target any person regardless of nationality, discouraging Syria\u2019s neighbors from helping in the reconstruction.<\/p>\n<p>On top of the sanctions, the US also maintains an occupation force of about 900 soldiers in eastern Syria and supports the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in the region. This area of Syria is where most of the country\u2019s oil fields are, so the US presence keeps vital resource out of the hands of Damascus.<\/p>\n<p>Washington\u2019s economic warfare against Syria is exacerbating the country\u2019s food shortages. <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/news.un.org\/en\/story\/2021\/02\/1084972\" >According to the UN<\/a>, as of February, the number of Syrians that are close to starvation is at 12.4 million, or 60 percent of the population.<\/p>\n<p>____________________________________________<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><em>Dave DeCamp is the news editor of<\/em> Antiwar.com.<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/news.antiwar.com\/2021\/10\/13\/blinken-us-policy-is-to-oppose-the-reconstruction-of-syria\/\" >Go to Original &#8211; antiwar.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The US Has Ruled Out Normalizing with Syria<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":116994,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[204],"tags":[703,1749,1748,260,1050,950,583,88,234,767,291,86,109,287,1190,923,413,265,124,70,126,118],"class_list":["post-198609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-syria-in-context","tag-al-qaeda","tag-chemical-weapons-attack","tag-fake-report","tag-history","tag-imperialism","tag-invasion","tag-isis","tag-israel","tag-media","tag-middle-east","tag-military","tag-occupation","tag-politics","tag-power","tag-regime-change","tag-sanctions","tag-syria","tag-terrorism","tag-united-nations","tag-usa","tag-violence","tag-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198609"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198609\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":274971,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198609\/revisions\/274971"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}