Latest in Syria
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia dismissed Bilal Abdul Kareem’s suit against Gina Haspel, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and others. Judge Karen Henderson threw the case out for lack of Article III standing.
On Wednesday, December 9, 2020, at 10:00 a.m., the House Foreign Affairs Committee will hold a hearing to evaluate U.S. policy toward Syria. The committee will hear testimony from Joel Rayburn, the deputy assistant secretary of state for Levant affairs and the special envoy for Syria.
You can watch a livestream of the hearing here or below:
I interviewed foreign Islamic State women to hear their opinions on a host of issues.
Since a lethal airstrike against Turkish forces in Syria on Feb. 27, speculation has been rife as to whether Turkey could request military assistance under Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty. At least for now, such speculation is misplaced.
European countries are making progress to hold individuals and corporations accountable for their crimes in the Syrian conflict.
Israel is sending a message to Assad and his patrons in Iran and Russia.
What will happen to the foreign fighters who traveled to Iraq and Syria to combat the Islamic State?
The United States still has some leverage to push for a deal.
It has been almost three weeks since the president ordered the precipitous withdrawal of U.S. forces from northeast Syria. The move allowed the Turkish military and its proxies to swiftly invade the area, setting off a cascade of events that has forced America’s Syrian-Kurdish partners to strike a deal with the Assad regime, exposed Kurdish soldiers and civilians to a barrage of attacks, enabled more than 100 ISIS fighters to escape Kurdish detention facilities, and facilitated the growth of Russian and Iranian influence in the region.
On Oct. 29, the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East, North Africa and International Terrorism will hold a hearing titled “Examining the Administration’s Policy Objectives for a Turbulent Middle East.” The hearing will feature testimony from David Schenker, the assistant secretary of state for near eastern affairs, and Michael Harvey, the assistant administrator for the Middle East at the U.S. Agency for International Development.