Blog Posts

"The U.S. and Turkey agreed Thursday to a cease-fire in the Turks’ deadly attacks on Kurdish fighters in northern Syria, requiring the Kurds to vacate the area in an arrangement that largely solidifies Turkey’s position and aims in the weeklong conflict. The deal includes a conditional halt to American economic sanctions."

"Both the Obama administration and now more acutely the Trump administration have made catastrophic mistakes in Syria that are costing the United States. Both administrations underestimated the extent to which NATO ally Turkey would go to protect its own interests, how Russia and Iran would rally behind Bashar al-Assad, and that the Assad regime’s pernicious form of governance was the central driver of conflict in Syria—of which the Islamic State is a symptom."

"House and Senate lawmakers on Thursday left Pentagon briefings on the crisis in Syria frustrated with the tangle of problems that came with President Donald Trump’s decision to pull troops from Syria and voicing new fears the Islamic State will regroup to wage terror."

Russian President Vladimir Putin is presenting himself as a peacemaker in the Middle East, the go-to arbiter to whom all regional leaders can turn to, secure in the knowledge that he considers incumbency a good thing and regime change bad, analysts say. When it comes to neighboring Ukraine, though, the picture is different.

"The U.S. and Turkey agreed Thursday to a five-day cease-fire in the Turks’ attacks on Kurdish fighters in northern Syria to allow the Kurds to withdraw to roughly 20 miles away from the Turkish border. The arrangement appeared to be a significant embrace of Turkey’s position in the weeklong conflict."

"Syrian forces on Wednesday night rolled into the strategic border town of Kobani, blocking one path for the Turkish military to establish a 'safe zone' free of Syrian Kurdish fighters along the frontier as part of its week-old offensive."

"Kabul’s ambassador to Washington said 'passing statements' about U.S. withdrawal or peace talks with the Taliban made in American political campaigns are 'not helpful' in setting Afghanistan on the pathway to a future as functioning democratic republic."

U.S. President Donald Trump expects a “successful meeting” Thursday in Ankara as his vice president and secretary of state push Turkey to halt its offensive in northeastern Syria, while Trump continues to reject that he is responsible for the operation meant to push Kurdish fighters from the border region.

The unconventional and insidious threat U.S. adversaries pose is in the "gray zone," the space between U.S. traditional concepts of a peaceful state of affairs and full-scale war, a Defense Department official said.

"One after another, the commanders who oversaw this nation’s battles in the Middle East have expressed their distaste for the way that President Donald Trump has handled the long-threatened Turkish invasion of Syria."

"Turkey vowed to press ahead with its offensive in northern Syria on Tuesday despite U.S. sanctions and growing calls for it to stop, while Syria’s Russia-backed army moved on the key city of Manbij that was abandoned by U.S. forces."

U.S. President Donald Trump has declared that the Turkish invasion of northeast Syria is "not our problem." In the Oval Office on Wednesday morning, with Italian President Sergio Mattarella at his side, Trump added it is fine for Russia to help and he declared that the Kurds defending their territory inside Syria against the Turkish military are "not angels."

"The first year for the military exercise Defender Pacific will be smaller in size than its sister drill in Europe in 2020, but it will still be one of the largest exercises conducted by the U.S. Army and its partners and allies in the region since Team Spirit drills in South Korea ended in the early 1990s."

"When Syria’s Kurdish fighters, America’s longtime battlefield allies against the Islamic State, announced over the weekend that they were switching sides and joining up with Damascus and Moscow, it seemed like a moment of geopolitical whiplash."

"Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has rejected a US call for an immediate ceasefire in northern Syria, saying Turkey's offensive will continue."

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence will head a high-level delegation to Turkey to press that country's president to halt his invasion of northeast Syria, President Donald Trump announced Tuesday.

"The Trump administration dispatched senior officials to Turkey to press for an end to Ankara’s military offensive in northeastern Syria, as Moscow began to fill a void created by departing U.S. troops."

"The new partnership for the Kurdish fighters may be an intelligence bonanza for Russia and Syria as U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces have spent years working alongside American commandos gauging tactics, techniques, procedures, equipment, intelligence gathering and even potentially names of operators."

The United States says diplomatic efforts are on "high gear" to press for a cease-fire after Turkey's incursion into northern Syria, as Washington tries to get the situation under control, according to a senior State Department official.

"Turkey’s president has said he would not stop his offensive on northern Syria until 'all our objectives had been achieved', defying US sanctions, a European arms embargo and increasing international isolation."

"Russia has said it will not allow clashes between Turkish and Syrian forces, as Turkey's military offensive in northern Syria continues."

"U.S. forces have played the roll of peacekeeper in the Syrian city of Manbij since its Kurdish-led partner force liberated the city from ISIS fighters in 2016."

"The Syrian fighters vowed to kill "pigs" and "infidels," paraded their Kurdish captives in front of cameras and, in one graphic video, fired several rounds into a man lying on the side of a highway with his hands bound behind his back."

"The administration’s first punitive actions against Turkey and its effort to start talks came amid widespread criticism on Capitol Hill that Mr. Trump’s decision left Kurdish militias that had aided the U.S.-led fight against Islamic State open to attack."

"After fading in the wake of 2014’s Operation Zarb-e-Azb, the TTP is poised for a resurgence."