Pelosi, others visit Jordan to discuss crisis in Syria

ISTANBUL » Speaker Nancy Pelosi has traveled to Jordan to meet with the Jordanian king for “vital” discussions about the Turkish incursion into Syria and other regional challenges, amid uncertainty about whether a U.S.-brokered cease-fire with Turkey in northern Syria was holding.

Confusion and continued shelling have marred the cease-fire deal announced by Vice President Mike Pence last week, with both Turkey and Kurdish leaders accusing each other of violating the truce.

Pelosi, D-Calif., led a nine-member bipartisan congressional delegation to Jordan that included Reps. Adam Schiff, D-Calif.; Eliot L. Engel, D-N.Y.; and Mac Thornberry, RTexas. The group met with King Abdullah II of Jordan on Saturday evening.

“Our bipartisan delegation is visiting Jordan at a critical time for the security and stability of the region,” Pelosi’s office said in a statement. “With the deepening crisis in Syria after Turkey’s incursion, our delegation has engaged in vital discussions about the impact to regional stability, increased flow of refugees, and the dangerous opening that has been provided to ISIS, Iran and Russia.”

The delegation also discussed issues like “counterterrorism, security cooperation, Middle East peace, economic development and other shared challenges,” the statement said.

A planned visit by Pelosi to American troops in Afghanistan this year was abruptly scrapped by President Donald Trump in a striking moment of oneupmanship during bitter negotiations over the partial government shutdown that forced thousands of federal employees to work without pay.