Trend Overview Welcome back to the Trump Administration Foreign Policy Tracker. Once a month, we ask FDD’s experts and scholars to assess the administration’s foreign policy. They provide trendlines...
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After the July 2025 Syrian government offensive in the south of the country that resulted in the deaths of at least 1,000 members of the Druze minority, reconciliation between Damascus and the Druze appeared...
If Washington is serious about a stable Damascus, it must use its leverage now before sectarian fractures harden beyond repair.
After years of serving as a key transit hub for foreign fighters and an enabler of the Islamic State’s (ISIS’s) campaign to establish a caliphate, Turkey is now in negotiations to repatriate its own...
The Islamic State (IS) intensified attacks against the Syrian government since February 21, carrying out at least six operations across Raqqa and Deir Ezzour provinces that have killed at least eight Syrian...
Serious concerns are emerging over the ability of the Syrian government to maintain security in the northeast of the country following its recent offensive against the Kurdish-led, U.S.-allied Syrian Democratic...
The Syrian government and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) continued transitioning control of portions of Syria as US Central Command (CENTCOM) said it had carried out strikes on the Islamic...
Walid Jumblatt, Lebanon’s most seasoned and cunning political operator, has navigated every twist of the country’s turmoil since taking the reins of the Druze community in 1977. Convinced that his...
After surviving numerous Islamic State (ISIS)-linked assassination plots, Syria’s President Ahmad al-Sharaa — himself a former jihadi — governs with a target on his back. Moreover, ISIS is resurging...
Latest Developments Al-Tanf Withdrawal: U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) stated on February 12 that U.S. forces had completed the “orderly withdrawal” from the al-Tanf base in northeastern Syria....
US Central Command (CENTCOM) has facilitated the transfer of around 5,000 Islamic State detainees from Syria to Iraq, according to Iraqi media reports on February 11. The US began the...
Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler could not have been blunter. “We have no agenda for withdrawing or leaving those areas,” Guler told the Turkish daily Hurriyet when asked whether Turkey...
Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al Shaibani took part in a meeting of the US-led anti-Islamic State coalition in Saudi Arabia on February 9. Syria joined the coalition in November as its...
Damascus’ entrance into the energy market will require it to update its dilapidated infrastructure.
Saudi Arabia and Qatar aim to reap the commercial rewards of rebuilding Syria now that the devastating civil war has ended and sanctions on Damascus have been lifted. Gulf investments are being deployed...
Masoud Barzani’s February 6 meeting with SDF commander Mazloum Abdi spotlights a decade of U.S. partnering that helped defeat ISIS in eastern Syria, but never produced a political endgame. After holding territory east of the Euphrates, the SDF suffered setbacks in mid-January clashes and then reached a January 30 understanding that allows Damascus to expand security control in remaining SDF areas. Some fighters could be absorbed into Syria’s army, while U.S. forces weigh next steps for ISIS detainee operations and their remaining footprint.
Syrian government forces began deploying to cities in northeastern Syria after an agreement between the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the interim government on January 30. Syrian...
The Middle East has finally arrived at the grim reckoning long barreling toward it: a ruinous collapse of oil revenues that renders government deficits utterly unsustainable. Among the wealthy Gulf...
Trend Overview ...