Live: Blinken tells Erdogan ‘all parties’ must ensure protection of Syrian civilians

Blinken tells Erdogan that Syrian civilians must be protected

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey on Thursday that Syrian civilians need to be protected after Ankara-backed Islamists overthrew the Damascus government.

Blinken “reiterated the importance of all actors in Syria respecting human rights, upholding international humanitarian law, and taking all feasible steps to protect civilians, including members of minority groups”, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.

Turkey has emphasised its security concerns following the upheaval in Syria, where it has been fighting a Kurdish-led force that Washington backs as a key player in the fight against Islamic State (IS) group jihadists. Blinken acknowledged “real and clear interests” by Turkey about the PKK, the Kurdish fighters that Ankara links to Syrian Kurdish guerrillas.



Blinken told Erdogan of “the need to ensure the coalition to defeat ISIS (IS) can continue to execute its critical mission”, Miller said. “At the same time, again, we want to avoid sparking any kinds of additional conflicts inside of Syria,” Blinken told reporters in Aqaba, 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,” he said, referring to the Kurdish-led forces.

Welcome to our liveblog, where we post the latest news on the developing situation in Syria. To read all about yesterday’s key events, click here.