Senators, Visiting Afghanistan, Warn Trump Over Diplomatic Vacancies by Mujib Mashal - New York Times

A delegation of United States senators visiting Afghanistan issued a stark warning on Tuesday to President Trump to fill vacant embassy and State Department positions here in order to better address the country’s mounting military and political crises.

Led by Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, the American delegation in Kabul voiced what has been a concern for months now in the absence of a permanent American ambassador. The civilian diplomatic mission here has been led by a chargé d’affaires, Hugo Llorens, who was called in from imminent retirement to help as a stopgap during a time when the Afghan government has faced political storms.

“All of us realize that it’s more than just dropping bombs that will win in Afghanistan,” Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, said. “Secretary Tillerson needs to come to Afghanistan quickly.”

Mr. Graham described the lack of diplomatic focus as unnerving and called on the administration to appoint someone “to manage this portfolio” as well as fill many of the vacant positions in the State Department dealing with South and Central Asia.

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat of Rhode Island, said the military had expressed concern about “the hollowing out of the State Department.”

The issue is again highlighting the United States military’s outsize role in Afghanistan, with American commanders even shouldering some of the diplomatic efforts around the country…

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Working With Russia Might Be The Best Path To Peace In Syria by David Ignatius - Washington Post

When Donald Trump meets Vladimir Putin this Friday in Hamburg, the two presidents should have in the back of their minds the insignia worn by the Syrian Democratic Forces militia, which is the United States’ main ally here. The patch shows a map of Syria bisected by the sharp blue line of the Euphrates River.

The Euphrates marks the informal “deconfliction” line between the Russian-backed Syrian regime west of the river, and the U.S.-backed and Kurdish-led SDF to the east. In the past several weeks, the two powers negotiated a useful adjustment of the line — creating a roughly 80-mile arc that stretches south, from near this battlefront city on Lake Assad, to a town called Karama on the Euphrates.

U.S.-Russian agreement on this buffer zone is a promising sign. It allows, in effect, for the United States and its allies to clear the Islamic State’s capital, Raqqa, while Russia and the Syrian regime take the city of Deir al-Zour, to the southeast. The line keeps the combatants focused on the Islamic State, rather than sparring with each other.

What Trump and Putin should discuss at the Group of 20 summit is whether this recent agreement on the separation line is a model for wider U.S.-Russian cooperation in Syria. This broader effort would seek to defeat the Islamic State; stabilize a battered, fragmented Syria; and, eventually, discuss a political future. But is it practical?

Russian-American cooperation on Syria faces a huge obstacle right now. It would legitimize a Russian regime that invaded Ukraine and meddled in U.S. and European elections, in addition to its intervention in Syria. Putin’s very name is toxic in Congress and the U.S. media these days, and Trump is blasted for even considering compromise…

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