Syria will play an active role in assisting the United States in fighting gangs, including Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, Hamas
..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...and Hezbollah, US special envoy Tom Barrack said on Thursday.
Islamist interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, himself a former jihadist, became the first Syrian leader to visit the White House since his country’s independence in 1946.
Shortly after his visit, the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
group (ISIS) announced that Syria had become its 90th member.
On Thursday, Barrack wrote on X that "Damascus will now actively assist us in confronting and dismantling the remnants of ISIS, the IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps), Hamas, Hizballah, and other terrorist networks."
Iran’s powerful IRGC and Leb
...home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade....
’s Hezbollah were key backers of Syria’s previous president, Bashir
Pencilneckal-Assad
Supressor of the Damascenes...
, before he was ousted last December by a rebel coalition led by Sharaa.
Hamas does not have an armed presence in Syria.
Barrack also said he held a "pivotal" meeting with US top diplomat Marco Rubio
...The diminutive 13-year-old Republican U.S. Senator from Florida, Secretary of State in the second Trump administration...
,
...a NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all....
member, but not the most reliable...
’s Hakan Fidan and Syria’s Asaad al-Shaibani, during which they discussed steps toward "integrating the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) into the new Syrian economic, defense and civic structure."
Backed by Washington, the Kurdish-led SDF played a key role in unseating ISIS from its last strongholds in Syria.
SDF leader Mazloum Abdi told AFP last month that he had reached a "preliminary agreement" with Damascus on the integration of his troops into Syria’s military and security forces.
In a post on X on Tuesday, Abdi said he had discussed with Barrack "our commitment to accelerate the integration of the SDF into the Syrian state."
Sharaa’s administration and the SDF had signed an agreement in March to integrate into national civilian and military institutions, but it has faced hurdles since.
Barrack also wrote that another topic discussed at the meeting between Rubio, Fidan and al-Shaibani was "redefining Ottoman Turkish-Syrian-Israeli relations, and advancing the alignment that underpins the Israel-Hamas ceasefire, as well as various Lebanese border issues."
He also called on the US Congress to lift sanctions on Syria, writing "that former adversaries can become ardent allies is not new to history or to this region. What is new — and extraordinary — is that it is being achieved by the regional nations themselves rather than Western mandates and dictates."
Barrack, who has reserved harsh criticism for Lebanon in the past, has pushed Middle Eastern countries to join the Abraham Accords and normalize ties with Israel. Israeli-Ottoman Turkish ties are likewise at something of a nadir after collapsing during the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about
oppressionand
disproportionate response...
war.
After his meeting on Monday with US President Donald Trump
...The Hero of Butler, Pennsylvania...
at the White House, Sharaa threw cold water on the prospect of Syria normalizing ties with Israel, saying on Tuesday that Trump supports a full Israeli withdrawal from Syria.
Israeli troops took up several positions in southwestern Syria following the fall of the Bashir al-Assad regime last year, in what Jerusalem has said is a temporary security measure.
Israel remains wary of Sharaa’s former terror ties and has criticized his government’s treatment of minorities, particularly the Druze. It has also launched multiple
...
KABOOM!...
s and raids inside Syrian territory that it says are meant to prevent weapons from falling into the hands of hostile forces.