The visits came a day after Sharaa — also known by his nom de guerre, Abu Mohammed al-Jolani — met with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, the highest-level visit from Lebanon to Syria to date. Arab states had responded cautiously to Assad’s fall and the takeover by HTS-led Islamist rebels.

Qatar and Jordan are the latest in the region to send delegations to meet with Syria’s new leaders, including Ahmed al-Sharaa, head of Hayʼat Tahrir al-Sham.

The number of US troops in Syria has regularly surged higher than the Pentagon has publicly disclosed since at least 2020, and in recent months increased to more than double the roughly 900 troops the US has long said are in Syria,

The leader of Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the Islamist rebel group that led the assault that ultimately toppled Bashar Assad's government in Syria, has reached an agreement with other rebel leaders in its coalition to dissolve their factions and merge them under the Defense Ministry,

Ankara's growing military presence in Syria has led to a diplomatic clash between former allies Israel and Turkey. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has supported Hamas, even hinting at some sort of armed intervention.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has had a succession of monumental wins that include the top leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah being eliminated.

Syria is in chaos. The danger to Israel and the West is that the next Syrian regime will be no friendlier than Assad was. After all, the enemy of your enemy isn’t always your friend.

Israel is celebrating the fall of Assad because it breaks the noose that Iran had been patiently tightening around Israel’s borders in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria. Tehran’s pincer is now broken and rendered useless. From the point of view of Israel’s wider conflict with the Islamic Republic, the collapse of Assad’s regime is a strategic victory.

In the past week, the Pentagon has acknowledged that its footprint in Iraq and Syria is bigger than it has claimed for years

Turkey is aiming to strike a maritime demarcation agreement with Syria after a permanent government is formed in Damascus, Turkish Transport Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu said on Tuesday.

By Samia Nakhoul DUBAI (Reuters) - 2025 will be a year of reckoning for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his country's arch foe Iran. The veteran Israeli leader is set to cement his strategic goals: tightening his military control over Gaza,