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Instability in Syria

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio Meets With Syrian Foreign Foreign Minister

  • The two discussed Syria’s relationship with Israel, concerns over chemical weapons, and the human rights situation in the country (Reuters)

Trump Meets With Al Sharaa, Lifts Sanctions, Will Explore Normalizing Relations

  • Trump announced the sanctions relief yesterday and met with interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa today in Saudi Arabia; the country deserves “a chance at greatness,” Trump said (Reuters)
  • Countries such as Saudi Arabia and Turkey had called for the United States to ease sanctions on Syria to support reconstruction after its civil war ended last December (NYT)
  • Trump also urged al-Sharaa to normalize ties with Israel after years of tensions (Al Jazeera)
  • Israel has opposed granting Syria sanctions relief and escalated its military presence in the country in recent months (DW)

Trump Considering Removal of Syria Sanctions

  • U.S. President Donald Trump stated that the United States could lift its sanctions that it levied during the regime of former Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, though the United States has yet to officially recognize the country’s new government under President Ahmed Al-Sharaa (Al Jazeera)
  • Meanwhile, President Ahmed al-Sharaa decided not to attend this weekend’s Arab League summit in Baghdad follows intense debate in Iraq over his alleged attacks on Shi’ites during his time as a soldier for Al Qaeda in Iraq; Iraq’s prime minister chose to extend an invitation to al-Sharaa in April, which prompted fierce criticisms from Iraqi lawmakers (Reuters)

Al-Sharaa Meets With French President Emmanuel Macron

  • Macron said he would pursue the progressive removal of European Union (EU) sanctions if Syria moved forward with reforms (EuroNews)

Israel-Syria Security Talks Ongoing Through UAE Backchannels

  • Sources close to the situation stated that Israel and Syria reportedly began talks in April to exclusively discuss security issues, with a focus on counterterrorism; the sources also indicated that Israel and Syria held informal talks through other channels in the past week, aimed at de-escalating ongoing ethnic violence and Israeli strikes in Syria (Reuters)
  • In Paris, Syrian interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa confirmed the two countries are involved in indirect talks to prevent tensions from “spiraling out of control” (Times of Israel)

Israeli Strikes on Syria Kill Two, Injure Eight

  • Israel’s military stated that the strikes targeted military infrastructure and weapons in Damascus; Israel also struck targets near the Syrian presidential palace the day before, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warning Damascus against further violence against the local Druze community (Al Jazeera)

Israeli Strikes in Syria

  • Israel said that it conducted a strike in Syria against “an extremist group” that targeted members of the minority Druze community; Syria’s foreign ministry said it rejected “all forms of foreign intervention” and pledged to protect the Druze (Reuters)
  • Israel’s action followed a spate of violence that killed Druze members near Damascus (LA Times)

Clashes Near Damascus

  • Violence between pro-government fighters and those belonging to the minority Druze sect killed at least ten people near Damascus; an agreement with government representatives and local officials that evening committed to ending the fighting (AP)
  • Syria’s interior ministry said it was investigating an audio clip, in which a man reportedly criticized the Prophet Muhammad, that circulated on social media and sparked the fighting (Arab News)

UK Lifts More Sanctions on Syrian Security Agencies

  • The sanctions relief is meant to support Syria’s reconstruction, London said; it had previously lifted restrictions on the country’s energy sector and central bank (NYT)
  • Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund’s head said it hoped to help Syria reenter the global economy (Reuters)

IMF Mission to Syria

  • The IMF appointed its first head of mission to Syria in fourteen years, interim Syrian finance minister Mohammed Yosr Bernieh said; Bernieh and Syria’s central bank chief are in Washington for the IMF and World Bank Spring Meetings, the first official visit by Syria’s interim authorities to the United States since the ouster of Bashar al-Assad (Reuters)
  • Additionally, as Syrian President Ahmad Al-Sharaa continues to court neighboring countries after the fall of Bashar Al-Assad’s regime, several Shiite officials in Iraq came forward to criticize Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani’s decision to invite Al-Sharaa to the Arab League Summit on May 17; Al-Sharaa fought as a Sunni militant for Al-Qaeda in Iraq during the US invasion in 2003 and still faces terrorism charges in Iraq (AP)

Syria Arrests Militant Leaders

  • Syria’s interim government detained two senior officials from the militant group Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the group’s armed wing said (Reuters)
  • The current authorities in Damascus continue to seek sanctions relief from Western countries, including the United States; last week, a U.S. State Department spokesperson said that Syria’s interim authorities “should fully renounce and suppress terrorism” (WSJ)

U.S. Begins “Consolidation” of Troops in Syria

  • In a statement, the U.S. Department of Defense indicated that it will reduce the number of forces operating in Syria to less than one thousand, reflecting the “significant steps” the United States has made to degrade the Islamic States’ capabilities (U.S. Department of Defense)
  • Meanwhile, the UN Development Programme announced plans to disperse $1.3 billion of aid to Syria over three years to help country recover from war (Reuters)
  • Today, Syria also received its first shipment of wheat since the fall of the Assad regime; the shipment reportedly arrived from Russia which, along with Iran, provided the majority of wheat and oil to Syria under Syria’s previous president Bashar al-Assad (Reuters)

Israel Plans to Hold “Security Zones” Indefinitely

  • Israel will keep troops deployed in certain zones of Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria indefinitely, Defense Minister Israel Katz said yesterday; he added they would create buffer zones to protect Israeli communities (AP)

U.S. Reportedly Prepares to Reduce Troop Presence in Syria

  • Two defense officials reported the plans, indicating that the two-thousand troop presence could be slashed in half, though the exact amount remains uncertain given the tense state of ongoing U.S.-Iran negotiations; currently, U.S. forces in Syria operate with local forces to monitor and counter the Islamic State (Reuters)

Reported Saudi Financial Aid for Syria

  • Saudi Arabia plans to pay off some $15 million in Syrian debt to the World Bank, three unnamed sources told Reuters; the debts have blocked the bank from issuing Syria new reconstruction finance (Reuters). Syria’s finance minister met with a World Bank delegation, the country’s state media said (Reuters)
  • Separately, Lebanon and Syria agreed to cooperate economically and coordinate over security issues in Cairo; last month, they saw deadly border clashes before reaching a cease-fire (Al Jazeera)
  • Syrian interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa and Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam’s visit begins a phase of “restoration of trust,” Salam said; the leaders also discussed the case of Lebanese people who had gone missing in Syria in recent decades (Reuters)

Al-Sharaa and Lebanese Prime Minister Meet in Damascus

  • The Syrian president met with Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam to improve security coordination, increase economic cooperation, and resolve issues with land and sea border delineations (Reuters)

Israel, Turkey Talk Syria

  • Israel and Turkey held talks in Azerbaijan about creating a deconfliction mechanism to prevent unwanted incidents in Syria, unnamed Turkish officials told multiple news outlets (AP)
  • Israel earlier this month struck an airbase in Syria where it accused Turkey of trying to build a “protectorate” (AP)
  • Turkey supports Syria’s new government, which has criticized Israeli incursions in the country (NYT)

Trump Administration Reverses Food Aid Cuts to Syria

  • The administration informed the World Food Program (WFP) that it reversed aid cuts after USAID funds to the WFP in fourteen countries had been mistakenly cut, according to a U.S. Department of State spokesperson; USAID and UN officials stated that funding was restored for programs in Ecuador, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Somalia, and Syria, though funding cuts remain in Afghanistan and Yemen (AP)

Al-Sharaa to Visit the UAE and Turkey This Week

  • Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) marks his first visit to the country and his second to a Gulf state after his February visit to Saudi Arabia (Reuters)

Kurdish Fighters Adhere to Deal With Damascus and Leave Aleppo

  • The fighters left two northern neighborhoods of the city in accordance with the deal between Syria’s new central government and the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF); the deal plans to integrate the SDF with the Syrian army and promises new constitutional rights, citizenship, and lingual freedom (AP)

Power Grid Malfunctions Cause Nationwide Blackout in Syria

  • Power gradually returned to Syria’s provinces, and the Syrian Ministry of Energy stated that no evidence pointed to an attack causing the outage; the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime led to supply cuts of Iranian electricity shipments, forcing the new government to import electricity from Jordan, Turkey, and Qatar (Al Jazeera)

Interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa Names Twenty-Three Person Cabinet

  • Al-Sharaa kept the defense, foreign, and interior ministries in the hands of close allies but also included religious minorities and one woman (NYT)
  • The head of the volunteer rescue group, White Helmets, will be the emergency minister (Reuters)
  • Western countries, such as those in the European Union, have been watching for the inclusivity of Sharaa’s government before making further decisions on aid and sanctions relief (France24)

Six Killed After Clash Between Israeli Soldiers and Syrian Militants in Southern Syria

  • The Israeli military stated that Syrian militants opened fire on its soldiers near the border buffer zone between the two states, after which Israeli soldiers returned fire and launched an airstrike, killing six Syrian militants; Israeli security forces currently occupy the demilitarized buffer zone between the two states (Reuters)

Lebanon and Syria Agree to Cease-Fire After Two Days of Deadly Border Clashes

  • Syria’s interim government accused Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah of abducting and killing three Syrian soldiers on Saturday (WaPo)
  • Amid subsequent fighting, seven Lebanese people were killed, Lebanon’s health ministry said; the truce agreement calls for “enhanced coordination and cooperation between the two sides,” Syria’s defense ministry said (AP)
  • Amid Israel’s increased strikes on military targets and sites in southern Syria, Damascus stated that a series of airstrikes on March 17 killed at least three civilians and injured nineteen others (Reuters)

Weekend Clashes Along Border Raise Tensions Between Syria and Lebanon

  • Damascus accused Hezbollah fighters of killing three Syrian soldiers in a cross-border attack on Saturday, which Hezbollah denied and instead accused Syrian soldiers of attacking Lebanese villages; both parties reportedly fired artillery shells at each other’s positions into early morning on Monday, prompting Beirut to deploy its troops to the border to ease the situation, and both the Lebanese and Syrian armies are reportedly maintaining communications (Al Jazeera)