The future of Syria
Newshour
BBC
4.2 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 14 December 2024
⏱️ 47 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The US's top diplomat is in Jordan for talks with representatives from several Arab countries, Turkey, and Europe to discuss the future of Syria following the ousting of the former president, Bashar al-Assad. Also on the programme, the South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has vowed to fight for his political future, after parliament voted to impeach him over his failed attempt to impose martial law; and, the director of "Goodbye Lenin", Wolfgang Becker has died.
(Photo: Turkey's Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan speaks with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken during a meeting with the foreign ministers of the Arab Contact Group on Syria in Jordan's southern Red Sea coastal city of Aqaba on December 14, 2024. ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/Pool via REUTERS)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to NewsHour from the BBC World Service coming to you live from London with me Paul Henley. |
| 0:11.0 | Well, many in the crowds of people in Syria celebrating the fall of the Assad regime might have made pleas to the international community to leave their country alone to work out its |
| 0:21.4 | own future, the diplomatic international effort to influence the direction of Syria is now well |
| 0:27.9 | underway nonetheless in Jordan. Today, foreign ministers from eight Arab countries said they were |
| 0:33.9 | supporting a peaceful transition process for Syria. They said Syria's state |
| 0:38.8 | institutions must be preserved to stop the country slipping into chaos. At a news conference |
| 0:44.4 | in the city of Akaba, the Jordanian foreign minister Ayman Safadi pledged support to the Syrian people. |
| 0:54.7 | We all agree that we stand by Syria. |
| 0:57.9 | We stand by the brotherly Syrian people. |
| 1:01.0 | We will support them with all that we have |
| 1:03.4 | to launch a comprehensive and inclusive political process |
| 1:06.6 | that fulfills the rights of all Syrians |
| 1:08.9 | and ensures a better future for all Syrians. |
| 1:11.9 | At the same time as Arab foreign ministers were meeting, Jordan's also been hosting top officials |
| 1:17.2 | from the US, Turkey and the UN for talks on Syria's future. The US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken was there. |
| 1:25.0 | Our state correspondent Tom Bateman is travelling with Mr Blinken. |
| 1:28.9 | He sent this report. |
| 1:30.8 | At the start of the roundtable meeting, Anthony Blinken was lent over in close conversation with his Turkish counterpart, Hqam Fidane. |
| 1:38.3 | The fall of the Assad regime and the march on Damascus by the Islamist faction HTS, with its ties to Ankara, |
| 1:45.4 | has seen Turkey's influence grow significantly in Syria. |
| 1:49.1 | After the summit, Mr. Blinken said for the first time that the U.S. was in direct contact with HTS, |
| 1:55.0 | a group Washington designates as a terrorist organization, |
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