U.S. Diplomats Visit Syrian Capital for First Time in Over Ten Years |
The U.S. delegation, including the top State Department official for the Middle East and a hostage envoy, is meeting today with representatives of rebel group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham as well as activists and members of civil society and minority groups. The visit of U.S. diplomats is the first to Syria since the United States closed its embassy in 2012. They are discussing the country’s political transition as well as efforts to find and bring back Americans who disappeared in the Bashar al-Assad regime, including journalist Austin Tice.
Among the many factors that remain unclear about the transition is the fate of U.S. troops stationed in Syria. Yesterday, the Defense Department disclosed the number of personnel there to be around two thousand, up from the nine hundred tally it has been citing for years. The troops were sent before Assad’s ouster to enhance operations against the self-declared Islamic State, a Pentagon spokesperson said. The United States in recent days has stepped up strikes against ISIS targets in Syria over concerns it could grow inside the country’s power vacuum; several governments, including the United States, stressed the importance of prohibiting the reemergence of terrorism in Syria at a recent meeting in Jordan. (WaPo, AP, State Department)
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“The prospect of instability and the fact that extremists feed off power vacuums makes the mission of the...U.S. troops in Syria more urgent than it was just a few months ago. Withdrawing them now, at a moment of maximum instability in Syria, would be foolish,” CFR Senior Fellow Steven A. Cook writes for Foreign Policy.
“The [Syrian Democratic Forces], backed by the United States, continues to control many of Syria’s natural resources, particularly its oil fields,” Karam Shaar Advisory Limited’s Karam Shaar and Benjamin Fève write for Foreign Affairs. “The country’s economic recovery depends on the effective management of oil-rich areas, both to stabilize governance and to ensure that these vital resources can contribute to national reconstruction.”
At CFR this week, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken laid out why fragmentation would have consequences beyond Syria.
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Australia Announces $118 Million Police Training Deal With Solomon Islands |
The funds will pay for more police and the establishment of a training center in the islands’ capital of Honiara. The Solomon Islands already has a bilateral policing deal with China. Unlike in recent deals that Australia has struck with Nauru, Papua New Guinea, and Tuvalu, today’s Solomon Islands pact does not give Australia veto power over the island nation’s security decisions. (AP, ABC)
CFR’s Natalie Caloca unpacks Australia’s growing security role in the Indo-Pacific.
U.S./China: U.S. authorities arrested a Chinese national in southern California yesterday and charged him with working illegally as an agent of the Chinese government. Prosecutors say Yaoning Sun was part of an effort to influence local politics by working to elect a city councilperson two years ago. (NYT, AP)
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White House Official Calls Pakistani Missiles ‘Emerging Threat’ |
U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor Jon Finer warned yesterday that if Islamabad continued exploring long-range ballistic missile systems, it could gain the capability to strike Washington. His comments came a day after new U.S. sanctions on Pakistan’s missile program. Pakistan’s embassy in the United States did not immediately comment. (Reuters)
Sri Lanka: The navy rescued more than one hundred people aboard a fishing boat who are thought to be Rohingya refugees. Close to a million Rohingya refugees fled to Bangladesh in 2017, but overcrowded camps have pushed thousands to leave for neighboring countries. (AP) At this CFR event, experts discuss the challenge of the Rohingya’s statelessness. |
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Middle East and North Africa |
White House Pledges Own Assessment of UAE’s Statement on Weapons to Sudan |
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) told the United States it is not supplying arms to Sudanese rebel forces, a White House official told lawmakers in a letter seen by Reuters. The assurance comes as some in Congress have tried to block U.S. arms sales to the UAE over concerns about conduct in Sudan’s civil war. The White House said it would report its own assessment on the UAE guarantees by January 17. (Reuters)
CFR expert Michelle Gavin explains how Washington has been sending mixed messages over the war in Sudan.
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In this special year-end episode, CFR’s Robert McMahon and Carla Anne Robbins sit down with the New York Times’ Steven Erlanger to review the biggest stories of the past year and discuss developments to watch in 2025. |
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Rwanda Announces Victory Over Marburg Virus |
Health authorities declared an end to the outbreak of the viral hemorrhagic fever first detected in September. Forty-two days have passed since the discharge of the last patient known to have the disease. (Reuters) For Think Global Health, CFR’s Mariel Ferragamo looks at how Africa’s music industry is an unlikely hero in its health crises.
DRC: President Félix Tshisekedi replaced the head of the armed forces and several senior military officials. State media announced the reshuffle late last night but did not provide a reason. It comes days after peace talks between the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Rwanda over armed conflict in the eastern DRC were canceled, and clashes broke out immediately after. (AP, VOA)
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Zelenskyy Talks European Peacekeepers in Ukraine |
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy discussed stationing troops in Ukraine with European leaders as part of a potential cease-fire. He added that only North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) membership would be sufficient to guard against future Russian attacks. Some European leaders as well as President-elect Donald Trump have floated the peacekeeper idea, but it is still in early stages. Russian President Vladimir Putin said yesterday he is open to talks with Trump on ending the conflict. (NYT, WaPo)
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Canada’s Trudeau to Announce Cabinet Overhaul |
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is due to announce a cabinet shake-up this morning following Chrystia Freeland’s resignation as finance minister and deputy prime minister on Monday. Freeland’s exit had prompted some calls for Trudeau to resign. (Toronto Star)
U.S./Mexico: Mexico is ready to receive deported Mexican nationals from the United States but does not plan to receive deportees of other nationalities, President Claudia Sheinbaum said. Some of the countries to which Trump hopes to deport people do not accept U.S. deportation flights. (Bloomberg)
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House Rejects Trump-Backed Spending Bill Suspending Debt Limit For Two Years |
Several dozen Republican lawmakers joined Democrats in rejecting a bill put together a day after a previous bipartisan proposal was sunk following criticism by Trump and Elon Musk. The bill would have suspended the limits on the national debt for two years. Failure to reach a deal by midnight tonight would trigger a government shutdown. (WSJ)
This Backgrounder explains what happens if the United States hits its debt ceiling and why CFR expert Roger W. Ferguson argues it is an “antiquated mechanism” to move past.
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