Druze, Syria and Israel
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President Donald Trump signed an executive order lifting most US sanctions on Syria this week, cementing a sea change in his country’s approach to Damascus. What explains the shift, and what could future relations look like?
In Syria, violence continued between rival factions even after a ceasefire deal. Government troops withdrew overnight from a region as Israel said it would not allow Syrian forces south of Damascus, extending its attempted control of the area.
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SOFREP on MSNEvening Brief: US, Turkey Broker Truce as Syria Pulls Troops from Sweida; France Completes Military Withdrawal from SenegalIsrael strikes Damascus, ICE gets Medicaid access, and global flashpoints heat up from Syria to Taiwan. Catch up on today’s top moves.
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Responsible Statecraft on MSNIsrael-Syria clash puts US policy in the crosshairs, againThis escalation threatens Washington’s nascent normalization track with Syria’s interim president, and former jihadist Ahmed al‑Sharaa. President Trump publicly courted Sharaa in Riyadh in May, providing sanctions relief and a future place in the Abraham Accords, a plan now in doubt after Israel’s strike on Damascus.
US policy is to have one Syria and one army there and not support federalism. US Envoy to Syria Tom Barrack has a clear message for the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces.
Sham's terror designation, following the decision to lift Syria sanctions in order to aid its reconstruction after HTS ousted Assad.
President Ahmed al-Shara said the airstrike on Damascus threatened to escalate sectarian violence, in his sharpest criticism of Israel since he came to power.
Russian President Vladimir Putin had backed the now-deposed Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. AP. Biden outlined several pillars of US policy toward Syria in the meantime, including further ...
President Trump draws his own red line. — -- Just two days after the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad apparently deployed chemical weapons on his own people again, President Trump ...
Barrack spoke with Al-Monitor less than a month after Trump met with Sharaa in Riyadh on May 14 and announced he would lift all US sanctions on Syria. It marked a stunning turnaround for US policy, which had been to avoid direct engagement with Sharaa and his interim government. Barrack, a real estate investor and longtime friend of Trump, was ...