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Middle East
Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa at a Reuters interview at the presidential palace, in Damascus, Syria, in March.
Two top officials of Palestinian Islamic Jihad were arrested “without explanation” in Syria, according to the Palestinian militant group. The detentions occurred, PIJ said, “in a manner that we did not wish to see from brothers.” The two men have reportedly been held since last week.
The background: The Assad regime in Syria was both haven and backer of Palestinian armed groups for decades. In December, it was toppled by militants led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a jihadist group with al-Qaida roots.
Since then, HTS leader Ahmad al-Sharaa, now Syria’s interim president, has styled himself as a statesman focused on rebuilding a country wrecked by nearly 15 years of civil war and mass emigration. He has had to contend with sectarian tensions, Israeli incursions and airstrikes, and longstanding US sanctions that remain in place.
That last bit explains the timing of the arrest. The US recently sent Damascus a list of conditions for sanctions relief, which included cracking down on Palestinian militants and icing out Iranian influence.
Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s longstanding ties to Tehran, therefore, make it “a low-hanging fruit and a win-win with the US,” says Firas Maksad, Middle East director at Eurasia Group.
But will that fruit be sweet enough for Trump? “The single most important thing al-Sharaa has to do is stabilize the country, and for that he has to get financial assistance,” says regional expert Hani Sabra, founder of Alef Advisory.
A Syrian delegation is in Washington this week for sanctions relief talks on the sidelines of the IMF Spring Meetings.
It’s a delicate dance: His financial needs are acute, but “Al-Sharaa can’t be seen to be doing every single thing that Western powers want him to do,” says Sabra.
“The last thing he wants is to seem like just another lackey.”
People gather after Friday prayers during a protest in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, in Amman, Jordan, on April 4, 2025.
Jordanian authorities announced on Wednesday the arrest of 16 people accused of planning terrorist attacks inside Jordan. The country’s security services say the suspects had been under surveillance since 2021, and half a dozen of them were reportedly members of the Muslim Brotherhood, a transnational Islamist organization.
The Brotherhood, which has links to the Islamic Action Front, the largest opposition group in Jordan’s parliament, denies any involvement, and insists that it is "committed to its peaceful approach" to Jordan’s politics.
The story highlights underlying tensions in Jordan. The monarchy is a key US ally and aid-recipient, and it made peace with Israel in 1994. But Israel’s assault on Gaza in response to Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attacks generated huge anger in Jordan, where nearly half of the country’s 11.5 million people are of Palestinian origin.
The Islamic Action Front’s ferocious criticism of both Israel and King Abdullah helped it to place first in last year’s election, though the country’s weak parliament remains dominated by pro-government parties.
The bottom line: Much media attention for Israel’s war with Hamas is focused on events in Gaza, but the conflict continues to reverberate around the Middle East. Jordan’s King Abdullah is walking a particularly fine line: how to project both stability and legitimacy as war rages across the border, and tensions run high at home.
Ian Bremmer shares his insights on global politics this week on World In :60.
If the US won't work to return a wrongly deported man to El Salvador despite a Supreme Court ruling, are we headed towards a constitutional crisis?
It certainly appears that way, and I think this is the constitutional crisis that the Trump administration would love to have. Because wrongfully deporting someone without evidence who is in the country illegally and therefore guilty of a misdemeanor, but sending them to a max security prison, which the Supreme Court says you shouldn't do, but now is in another country. Very few Americans are sympathetic to the case of this person. And indeed, Trump won on the basis in part of being sick and tired of allowing illegal immigrants to spend enormous amounts of time in the United States without recourse.
So he's breaking the law here. He's flouting independent judiciary and their decision-making, but he's doing it on an issue that most Americans have no sympathy on the other side. So the Democrats would have to be very wary of making this a hill they want to die on, and Trump knows exactly what he's doing. It is pretty impressive playbook for undermining rule of law and checks and balances on an increasingly authoritarian leaning executive. That's where we are.
Trump claims China-Vietnam talks are intended to "screw" the US. Does this run the risk of pushing Vietnam to China?
Certainly, most Vietnamese now are more well-disposed towards China than the US. First time we've seen that since the war. It's not true across Southeast Asia. Philippines, about 80% still pro-US, not pro-China. But it is a problem, and Xi Jinping understands that. And that's why he went in and was received directly by the president as opposed to the prime minister last time who met him at the airport. 45 big deals that they're signing on trying to improve economic coordination. Clearly a bit of a surprise to Trump, just as the direct retaliation from the Chinese, even though the Americans warned them, "Negotiate, don't retaliate." But that's exactly what China did, and Trump frankly should have expected that was coming. Now he looks a little bit weaker in the way he's backing down and creating exemptions for a lot of people in this space.
Saudi Arabia plans to pay off Syria's World Bank debt. Could this be a major turning point for Syria's future and its ties with regional allies?
It certainly helps. We've also seen the Qataris already say they're going to offer gas through Jordan into Syria. I think that this is all promising. The Saudis were never going to do that, provide any support as long as Assad was in place. Now they are. The Americans are pulling troops out, and Turkey is going to be the most important country on the ground. But economically, it's going to be the Gulf States, and that gives this new Syrian regime a better chance to succeed. Something we all clearly are rooting for in terms of one of the places that we'd like to see a little more stability from. Anyway, that's it for me, and I'll talk to you all real soon.
- Zelensky snubs China’s peace push, Trump vows to end war “very quickly” ›
- China’s vows to pump up its economy — with one eye on Trump’s tariffs ›
- El Salvador's president wins big. What does this mean for the country and its neighbors? ›
- El Salvador's Bukele refuses to return wrongly-deported Maryland man, and offers to jail US citizens too ›
Demonstrators clash with police during a protest for the release of hostages held in Gaza, outside the home of Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer in Jerusalem, Israel, on April 13, 2025.
Thousands of Israeli soldiers, senior military officials, former intelligence operatives, military reservists, and veterans organizations have called on Israel’s prime minister to strike a deal with Hamas to free the remaining 59 hostages the group holds.
Twenty-four of those captives, taken during the group’s October 7, 2023 rampage into Southern Israel, are believed still alive, although Hamas said it lost contact with one living US-Israeli hostage yesterday.
In a series of open letters, these groups accuse Benjamin Netanyahu of endangering Israel’s security. Some claim he’s continuing the war to appease the right-wing nationalist parties that help him remain prime minister.
A missive from special forces reservists published on Monday said the latest wave of Israeli assaults on Gaza, which began last month after phase one of the Hamas-Israel ceasefire deal lapsed, “is intended only to serve the political goals of the government and the criminal defendant who heads it.” This is a pointed reference to the corruption charges Netanyahu has faced since before the war. He effectively holds immunity against them so long as he is prime minister.
Netanyahu has denounced those protesting. They are “frustrated retirees”, he said, and “an extreme fringe group that is once again trying to break Israeli society from within.”
Recent polls report that about 70% of Israeli Jews favor a deal with Hamas to free the remaining hostages, even if that means ending the war.
The big question: How long can Netanyahu continue a policy that moves out of line with what a majority of Israeli Jews want?
A propaganda street mural in Tehran showing the US and Iran meeting face to face.
The US and Iran resumed nuclear negotiations in Oman on Saturday, in the highest level talks between the two old foes since 2018.
What each side wants: Faced with inflation at over 30% and the currency in freefall, Tehran is seeking sanctions relief in exchange for limiting uranium enrichment. The US wants a deal that will limit the Islamic republic’s (rapidly accelerating) progress towards a nuclear weapon and cuts back its regional power.
That the talks happened at all was something of a surprise. Iran’s supreme leader recently poo-pooed the idea of speaking with the US directly. US president Donald Trump, who pulled the US out of an Obama-era nuclear deal with Iran during his first term in 2018, had offered the talks but also threatened military action if they failed.
After the meeting, Iran's state-run broadcaster announced that US Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi "briefly spoke", while the White Housedescribed the two-hour talks as "very positive and constructive.” Thenext round of discussions is scheduled for April 19.
Getting somewhat less attention, Washington also held nuclear talks on the other side of the Persian Gulf. On Sunday, Energy Secretary Chris Wrightannounced the US and Saudi Arabia are on the "pathway" to an agreement that would advance Riyadh's nuclear energy ambitions with US help, provided the Kingdom forswears any ambition to develop nuclear weapons.
The deal would transform Saudi Arabia, which wants to wean itself off of oil as part of the larger economic development vision of Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman. But there’s a sticking point: Riyadh wants to enrich its own uranium – as its regional rival Iran does – rather than importing it from abroad.
The talks are a resumption of discussions begun under the administration of US President Joe Biden, when Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman offered to establish diplomatic relations with Israel in exchange for US nuclear power cooperation – a conversation that was sidelined by the outbreak of the latest Israel-Hamas War in 2023.A Zimbabwean farmer addresses a meeting of white commercial farmers in the capital Harare, at one of a series of meetings that led to a 2020 accord on compensation for white forced off of their lands in 2000-2001.
3 million: This week, the government of Zimbabwe announced an initial payout of $3 million to white farmers who were forced off their lands in 2000-01. A compensation agreement signed in 2020 between the state and thousands of white farmers committed Zimbabwe to distribute a total of about $3.5 billion for seized farmland.
209: Longtime US politics-watcher Larry Sabato has issued his first election ratings report for the midterm election in November 2026, and it shows a tiny lead for Democrats in the lower House. “Our initial House ratings,” reads the report, “reflect a small House map, with Democrats narrowly ahead209-207 in the seats that at least lean to one party or the other, with 19 Toss-ups.”
85: Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russia’s chief prosecutor has chargedmore than 85 of Russia’s largest businesses with allegedly helping the West to undermine Russia’s economy. As a result, the Russian government has netted nearly $28 billion from the confiscation and sale of assets belonging to these companies. Critics say the actions merely benefit Vladimir Putin’s war machine and his wealthy state capitalist friends.
62: US producers of shale oil -- petroleum trapped in hard-to-reach rock formations -- are bracing for a "bloody mess" if falling oil prices dip below $62 per barrel, the level at which most of them break even. Shale oil, which accounts for more than a third of US output, was a major technological breakthrough that helped the US to become the world's leading oil producer over the past decade. The drawback is that shale production is expensive. Now a double whammy is driving down prices: increased Saudi production, and fears that Donald Trump’s trade wars will drive the world into recession.
7: At least seven Turkish journalists are facing jail time for their coverage of the mass demonstrations that erupted after the March 19 arrest of Istanbul’s mayor, a leading opponent of strongman President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Prosecutors say the journalists were participating in illegal demonstrations rather than simply reporting on them. Critics say these changes are political.
26: In the latest legal twist over the Trump administration’s immigration agenda, the Supreme Court told the US government on Thursday to bring Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia back to the United States, after it had wrongly sent the Maryland man to a Salvadoran prison 26 days prior as part of its effort to remove Venezuelan gang members from the country. The unsigned order didn’t necessitate Garcia’s return, but endorsed part of a trial judge’s ruling that demanded the White House “facilitate and effectuate” it.
Ian Bremmer shares his insights on global politics this week on World In :60.
Are the US and China rushing into a trade war?
Absolutely. I mean, if the Americans are actually going to impose tariffs of over 100% on Chinese exports of goods, it's essentially a trade embargo. That is a decoupling, and it's an unmanaged decoupling of US-China direct trade. Still an awful lot of goods from China to get to the United States through third countries. It's not clear all those will be cut off as the US negotiates with a lot of those countries. So people in America will still be buying Chinese goods, but inflation's going to go up. There's no question. And this is going to end up hurting the Chinese even more than it hurts the United States.
With an in-person nuclear talk set for Saturday, how confident is Trump that he can rein in Iran's nuclear program?
Well, it's interesting. What Trump is saying is that Iran will not be allowed to have nuclear weapons. That's different from what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been saying, which is that they cannot have a nuclear program of any sort. Trump wants to rein the program in. He did announce that there are going to be direct talks between the US and Iran. Iran didn't quite say that. They said they're having indirect talks, but if they go well, they'll lead to direct, which is certainly a concession to the Americans. And it's interesting that Trump did that while the Israeli prime minister was in the Oval Office visiting him. Bibi thought he was coming over for tariff relief, and what he got was Trump saying that Erdogan's his bestie, that the Israelis should be really thankful they get billions from the US, the tariffs aren't going anywhere, and that there's going to be negotiations with Iran. Really interesting. I think Bibi's got to be unhappy on his flight back to Israel.
Zelensky claims Ukrainian troops have captured two Chinese nationals fighting for Russia. How does it change the dynamics of the war?
Not at all. It does reflect the fact that Ukraine is under an awful lot of pressure and is trying to do anything they can to stay in the headlines, stay relevant, keep the Americans engaged and focused. I'm not surprised that there are two Chinese nationals fighting in Ukraine. Doesn't mean they were sent by the Chinese PLA. I mean, there are American nationals that have been fighting for the Ukrainians and it's not because they're sort of involved with NATO or sent by the US government. So I really don't think there's any there, but important enough for you to ask question. That's it for me. I'll talk to you all real soon.