US envoy tells Syrian leader it wants stability
Newshour
BBC
4.2 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 23 December 2024
⏱️ 47 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Iran says it's had no direct contact with the new Islamist leaders of Syria, its one-time close ally. The US, in contrast, sent its top regional diplomat, Assistant Secretary of State Barbara Leaf, to meet the de-facto leader in Damascus, Ahmed al-Sharaa; we hear how the meeting went.
Also in the programme: Nissan and Honda announce merger plans which would create the world's third-largest car-maker; and we hear from the Mexican women celebrated and damned for helping migrants trying to reach the United States.
(IMAGE: A delegation of US diplomats, including US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf (C, in green), leaves a hotel in Damascus, Syria 20 December 2024 / CREDIT: Hasan Belal/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to NewsHour. It's coming to you live from the BBC World Service studios in central London. |
| 0:08.9 | I'm Tim Franks. We're starting with the hunt for clues, the search that we've all been engaged on this month to try to work out what shape, what direction the new Syria might take. |
| 0:20.4 | When dictators fall, especially ones whose family's |
| 0:23.6 | brutal, dynastic rule, has gripped the country for more than 50 years, when there's been a protracted |
| 0:29.4 | and utterly ruin a civil war, then there's no guarantee recent experience has shown us that the |
| 0:35.1 | future will be predictable or even more so predictably better. |
| 0:40.8 | In a moment, we'll get the views of America's senior diplomat for the region, who's just met |
| 0:44.4 | the country's new de facto ruler. |
| 0:46.7 | While intriguingly, the Iranians have conceded that they have yet to have any contact with |
| 0:52.6 | the new rulers of Syria. |
| 0:54.6 | The Turks have been doing all they can to increase their influence on the direction the country takes, |
| 1:00.2 | and in particular to increase pressure on the Kurdish forces in the northeast of the country, |
| 1:04.6 | whom they portray as a threat to Turkish security. |
| 1:07.9 | On Sunday, the Turkish foreign minister, Hakan Fidane, |
| 1:12.0 | became the first foreign minister to meet Syria's new de facto ruler Ahmed al-Shara in Damascus, at which |
| 1:17.6 | point Mr. Shahar reiterated his demand that all the armed groups within Syria should hand |
| 1:23.2 | over their arms to this state, including the Syrian democratic forces in the semi-autonomous |
| 1:29.8 | Kurdish region. |
| 1:31.7 | We will not by any means allow for arms outside the control of the state, whether from |
| 1:37.1 | revolutionary factions or factions in SDF areas. |
| 1:41.1 | We need to close this chapter as quickly as possible because the presence of rogue |
| 1:45.5 | arms in the country is what leads to chaos and unstable security. So this is one of the priorities. |
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