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Blinken on Challenges in Syria, Iraq, and the Road Ahead

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Posted: January 22nd, 2017

By Antony Blinken

Former Cipher Brief Expert Antony Blinken is U.S. Secretary of State.  Blinken is also co-founder and a former managing partner of WestExec Advisors. He served as Deputy Secretary of State in the Obama administration. Before that, Tony served as Assistant to the President and Principal Deputy National Security Advisor to President Obama. He chaired the Deputies Committee, the administration’s principal forum for deliberating foreign policy. During the first Obama term, he was National Security Advisor to Vice President Biden.

Syrian opposition officials are meeting in the Kazakh capital of Astana to begin talks on a final peace agreement. Representatives from Russia and Turkey are expected to lead the negotiations with support from Iranian diplomats.

A ceasefire deal – brokered by Russia, Turkey and Iran – went into effect Dec. 30 and has largely held, despite reports of sporadic violence. The United States was not part of that deal, but Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov invited the new Trump administration to send representatives to the talks.

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