Back in March, the Kurdish SDF agreed on integration into the Syrian Army. The deal was mostly “in principle” with the details to be worked out in later talks. The process seems to have slowed on a number of different points, and the US isn’t happy. The SDF retains...
US envoy Tom Barrack declared himself “unbelievably satisfied” with Lebanon’s reply to his recent demand to fully disarm every single faction within the country. Since Hezbollah already made clear that was going to be a no, Barrack’s delight was somewhat surprising,...
Efforts to try to get Hezbollah to agree to disarm appear to have failed, with Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem announcing Wednesday evening that the group will not agree to give up its weapons, its land, or its right to resist. Lebanon’s government has been in talks with...
Difficult negotiations continue to be ongoing between the Lebanese government and Hezbollah with the question of if and how to potential disarm the organization, in keeping with US and Israeli demands. The matter is important right now because while Israel is...
Cursory reports in the press are suggesting that Lebanon might be on the verge of joining the Abraham Accords and normalizing relations with Israel. The Lebanese government isn’t explicitly denying it, but there seem to be some huge obstacles in the way. The first...
When Israel attacked Iran last week, sparking off a major regional war, there was a substantial concern across the region that other nations will get sucked into the conflict. That’s been particularly true in Lebanon, which Israel is still attacking on a near daily...
US officials have reportedly begun discussing the possibility of seeking the dissolution of the UNIFIL peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon, a move that comes amid a ceasefire that sees multiple violations on a daily basis. They emphasized that no decision has yet...
In December after the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) took power in Syria, the Biden Administration lifted the $10 million bounty on the head of Ahmed al-Sharaa, formerly known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Jolani. Sharaa has gone on quite an effort to...
The position of the United States on the Islamist Syrian government has been complex since the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) took power in December. The HTS, after all, was effectively al-Qaeda’s Syria branch up until it distanced itself from the parent group, with...
In late February, the IAEA released a quarterly report on Iran’s civilian nuclear program with predictable results. This weekend, the next quarterly report has dropped, and as last time, the media is in an absolute tizzy with panic about figures that should have been...
