When President Trump shook hands with Syria’s new leader and promised to lift sanctions on his country at the Saudi royal palace this week, it was a vivid demonstration of how the president’s Middle East diplomacy has all but sidelined Israel. “Tough guy, very strong past,” Mr. Trump said about President Ahmed al-Shara, who once…
President Trump held an extraordinary meeting on Wednesday with the president of Syria, Ahmed al-Shara, a day after announcing that the United States would lift sanctions on his country — a move that would ease the economic stranglehold on a nation that is seen as central to the stability of the Middle East. It was…
President Trump said on Tuesday that he would lift sanctions on Syria, throwing an economic lifeline to a country devastated by nearly 14 years of civil war and decades of dictatorship under the Assad family. Mr. Trump was expected to meet for the first time with Syria’s new president, Ahmed al-Shara, on Wednesday in Saudi…
When rebel forces took over Syria, they pledged to unite the country’s disparate armed groups into a unified national army. The biggest challenge for them by far has been in northeastern Syria, an autonomous region run by the country’s Kurdish minority where suspicion of the new leadership runs deep. In past years, the rebels and…
Two Republican congressmen arrived in Damascus on Friday, the first visit by American lawmakers to Syria in many years — and a signal that the party is starting to pay attention to the war-ravaged country after changes in leadership. The congressmen, Cory Mills of Florida and Marlin Stutzman of Indiana, were accompanied by members of…
Now, his relatives are making the rounds in Washington with Mr. Moustafa, who said they had met with people at the National Security Council, the State Department and on Capitol Hill. A State Department spokeswoman confirmed that a meeting took place; the White House did not respond to a request for comment. Maissa Kabbani, a…
The trainer paced the grounds of a mountain enclave in southwestern Syria, shouting at dozens of new recruits as they drilled sprints between barricades made from old car tires. “You have to practice as if it’s real,” screamed the instructor, Fadi Azam. “Want me to start shooting at you instead to make it real?” he…
Syrians on Sunday were digesting the overnight announcement of a caretaker government that will be in power for the next five years, accepting with some resignation the continued dominance of the rebel group that seized power in December but welcoming its representation of the country’s main ethnic minorities. The rebels who overthrew President Bashar al-Assad…
Syria’s interim president, Ahmed al-Shara, announced late Saturday the formation of a caretaker government that will lead the country through a crucial transition as it emerges from more than 50 years of dictatorship under the Assad family’s iron-fisted rule. Mr. al-Shara, who led the coalition of rebel forces that overthrew the Assad regime, appointed a…
A delegation of Syrian Druse made a rare visit to Israel over the weekend for a pilgrimage to a shrine as Israel seeks to extend its influence inside Syria after the fall of the dictator Bashar al-Assad. Both Israel and Syria have sizable minorities who belong to the Druse sect — an Arabic-speaking religious minority…