Will US remain a spectator on Syria?
President Joe Biden is taking his wins where he can as he prepares to leave the White House. He welcomed the “opportunity” presented by the shock ousting of Bashar Al Assad in Syria this week, an event Mr Biden hopes to use to burnish his legacy.
His actual track record on Syria is a complicated one – and the administration's posture on how to move forward is, too, as the lead opposition force in Damascus Hayat Tahrir Al Sham remains a US-designated terrorist organisation.
That didn't stop Mr Biden from selling his administration's support of Israel as a key driver of the events that unfolded in Syria.
“Iran tried two times to attack Israel, and the United States built a coalition of countries to directly defend Israel and help defeat those attacks. All this made [it impossible] for Iran and Hezbollah to continue to prop up ... the Assad regime.”
Syrian Emergency Task Force Director Mouaz Mustafa, currently en route to Syria in a bid to help find American detainee Austin Tice, told me that “Syria was nothing but forgotten under the Biden administration”.
Our columnist Hussein Ibish argued that of the US Presidents to serve during Syria's 13-year war, “none of them ever had a comprehensive approach to events in Syria. And that has left Washington in the unenviable position of being a largely ineffectual spectator.”
Meanwhile, US forces stationed in Syria conducted a strike on Tuesday after they were fired on in Deir Ezzor province, the Pentagon said.
Press secretary Maj Gen Pat Ryder said shells from mortars and rocket launchers landed near a US base.
Ellie Sennett
US Correspondent
EYE ON THE WHITE HOUSE
Republicans signal less involvement with Syria as it forges new future
President-elect Donald Trump and his Republican allies are signalling that Washington will be less involved in Syria as it navigates its post-Assad future.
I chatted with Speaker of the House Mike Johnson on Tuesday, and he told me he is “following the incoming Commander in Chief's lead” on the historic events in Syria.
That represents a pivot from the more traditional hawkishness of Republicans on Capitol Hill – Mr Trump declared that Washington “should have nothing to do” with the events unfolding in Syria, though that was just before the Assad regime had completely collapsed.
“This is not our fight. Let it play out. Do not get involved,” Mr Trump posted on social media as rebel forces entered Damascus.
Mr Johnson emphasised to me, however, that “we certainly all cheer the fall of the Assad regime, but we want to make sure that new people in charge set up a system of government that is conducive to human rights and all of those things”.
“Lots of delicate situations,” he said.
What's Washington talking about?
Recommended by LinkedIn
Austin Tice The search for Mr Tice is escalating – amid increased optimism that the 12-year-long detainee may be alive. President Biden has dispatched his top hostage negotiator to the Middle East as well as several other high-profile administration officials in an effort to find and bring freelance journalist Austin Tice home. He disappeared in Syria in August 2012. The US believes, since then, he has been held by the regime of Bashar Al Assad.
West Bank With just weeks left until Mr Trump and his Republican Party take full control in Washington, one of Mr Trump's key allies, Senator Tom Cotton, is sponsoring legislation to expunge “West Bank” references from all official US documents and replace the term with "Judea and Samaria".
Afghanistan Withdrawal Secretary of State Antony Blinken, at a contentious and long-fought for Congressional hearing, defended the Biden administration's withdrawal from Afghanistan. At his final Congressional hearing before the new government comes to power, Mr Blinken said he has “wrestled with what we could have done differently … even as we work to address the places where we fell short, I firmly believe that President Biden's decision to withdraw from Afghanistan was the right one.”
Spotlight: The growing list of Arab-Americans appointed to Donald Trump's incoming administration
Massad Boulos Mr Trump has nominated Mr Boulos, a Lebanese-American businessman, as his senior adviser on Arab and Middle East affairs.
Alina Habba A New Jersey lawyer of Iraqi origin, Ms Habba is set to become Mr Trump's legal counsel when he is in the White House.
Tom Barrack A prominent businessman, Mr Barrack is a billionaire and a long-time friend of the president-elect. Mr Trump nominated him as the next US ambassador to Turkey.
ONLY IN AMERICA
Luigi Mangione charged in killing of UnitedHealth executive Brian Thompson
Authorities arrested a man suspected of killing UnitedHealth executive Brian Thompson in a shooting outside a Manhattan hotel last week, New York City officials said on Monday, ending a five-day manhunt.
The suspect, identified as Luigi Mangione, 26, was detained in Altoona, Pennsylvania, after he was reported to be eating at a McDonald's restaurant by an employee who believed he resembled the gunman, officials said at a news conference.
Read More