Syria building US relations while serving pivotal regional role - analysis

Syria knows that working on ties with Israel will be helpful because the US is very close to Israel and focused on Israeli relations currently.

By SETH J. FRANTZMAN

A SYRIAN flag is displayed outside the White House following the meeting of US President Donald Trump and Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, US, November 10, 2025.(photo credit: REUTERS/KEVIN LAMARQUE)

Last November, when US President Donald Trump met Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa in the White House, they shared a moment of laughter. Trump had provided the Syrian leader with some of his Trump-branded cologne. “It’s the best fragrance,” he said.

Trump also said some of his brand’s perfumes were for Sharaa’s wife. Trump joked about whether Sharaa had more than one wife. Trump also seemed to spray the male version of the cologne on the Syrian foreign minister.

OPINION: Israel’s war on the high seas is a test for western resolve

As Houthi rebels escalate threats to Red Sea shipping, echoes of past maritime tensions reveal the strategic stakes for global trade and energy stability.

By Alex Brummer

Shipping freight vessels in the Red Sea have come under attack from Houthi rebels (Indian Navy via AP)

As a correspondent in Washington in the 1980s I vividly recall taking a call from a source at the British Embassy asking me to come over as they had something urgent to share. The UK government was alarmed by reports that the US Administration, in its battle with the Sandinista rebels in Nicaragua, was considering mining the country’s strategically important ports with access to both Caribbean waters and the Pacific Ocean.

Biden da su apoyo a Netanyahu tras el ataque «sin precedente» de Irán y pedirá al G7 coordinar una respuesta diplomática

Joe Biden con su equipo de seguridad nacional en la Casa Blanca Foto: Casa Blanca vía Facebook

El presidente estadounidense, Joe Biden, garantizó al primer ministro, Benjamín Netanyahu, su apoyo frente a Irán, aseguró que las fuerzas estadounidenses han contribuido a frenar ese ataque y avanzó que convocará a sus homólogos del G7 para coordinar una respuesta diplomática.

«Le he dicho que Israel ha demostrado una capacidad destacable para defenderse contra e incluso derrotar ataques sin precedentes – mandando un mensaje clave a sus enemigos de que no pueden amenazar eficazmente la seguridad de Israel», dijo en un comunicado difundido por la Casa Blanca.

Israel should do what the US would do against anyone who shot 330 missiles and drones on Americans

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iFO3Vmsg3s&t=5s

Emma Watson pro-Palestinian post sparks antisemitism row

Israeli officials attack actor’s message, and are accused of ‘cynical weaponisation’ of term.

Emma Watson has used her platform to support a number of high-profile causes. Photograph: Mark Cuthbert/Getty Images

Emma Watson has been accused of antisemitism by Israel’s former ambassador to the United Nations after she posted a message of support for the Palestinian cause.

Watson, best known for playing Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter films, posted an image on Instagram showing a photograph of a pro-Palestinian protest with the banner “Solidarity is a Verb” written across it. It was accompanied with a quote about the meaning of solidarity from the intersectional feminist scholar Sara Ahmed.

Una tecnología israelí custodió al Papa Francisco durante su visita a Eslovaquia

La empresa D-Fend proveyó la tecnología anti-drones durante los actos del Papa en el país europeo.

Papa Francisco Foto archivo: Wikimedia Commons Dominio Público

La tecnología de una empresa israelí neutralizó un drone durante una misa celebrada por el Papa Francisco con 60.000 fieles en Eslovaquia. El incidente ocurrió el 15 de septiembre, pero el embargo de revelarlo al público solo se ha eliminado ahora, según el medio Jerusalem Post.

La empresa en cuestión es D-Fend. Desde la firma, aseguraron que trabajaron en conjunto con el Ministerio del Interior eslovaco en tareas de protección al sumo

Challenging the World Order: Erdoğan and Nukes

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, photo via Office of the President of Russia

BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 1,306, October 6, 2019

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Brinksmanship may be his trademark, but Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is unlikely to provoke the ire of the international community by launching a nuclear weapons program. Still, his demand that Turkey has the right to do so highlights the fracturing of the rules-based international order as well as changing regional realities.

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s questioning of the international order with regard to nuclear weapons may well reflect the unspoken thinking of other regional leaders in a world in which the US has withdrawn from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty with Russia and unilaterally walked away from the 2015 international nuclear agreement with Iran, and in which countries like China and Russia are willing to sell nuclear technology as well as arms with few, if any, safeguards. In addition, the international community has failed to prevent Pakistan and North Korea from becoming nuclear powers.