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LOS ANGELES — The United States and its NATO allies are paying increased attention to military cooperation between Russia and China in the Arctic, where the two countries have conducted joint naval exercises, coast guard patrols and strategic bomber air training.

That cooperation includes more closely coordinated military drills, said Iris Ferguson,  U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for Arctic and Global Resilience. She spoke during an online December 5 discussion hosted by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“The increasing levels of collaboration between Russia and the PRC [People’s Republic of China] and the unprecedented style of collaboration, especially in the military domain, give us again pause,” said Ferguson.

In October, the coast guards of China and Russia conducted their first joint Arctic maritime patrol.

In July, four Russian and Chinese strategic bombers flew over the Chukchi Sea and the Bering Sea, marking the first time their military aircraft launched from the same airbase in northern Russia and the first time Chinese bombers flew within the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone.

China and Russia also held joint naval exercises in the Bering Strait in 2022 and 2023.

China has no Arctic territory of its own but is interested in growing opportunities for mineral exploration and a shipping route to Europe as climate change causes the Arctic ice cap to recede.

“It is an interesting development showing that a level of cooperation that a few years ago we didn’t think will get to that level,” said Stephanie Pezard, associate research department director at the RAND Corporation, headquartered in Santa Monica, California.

As recently as a few years ago, she told VOA Mandarin earlier this week, “Russia was really trying to beat China in industrial development in the Arctic.”

The U.S. Department of Defense published a “2024 Arctic Strategy” in July that identifies Chinese and Russian collaboration as a major geopolitical challenge driving the need for a new strategic approach to the Arctic.

Chang Ching, a senior researcher from the Society for Strategic Studies based in Taipei, said China’s presence in the Arctic creates pressure on the U.S. and other countries in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

“In the past, Russia was the only traditional adversary in the Arctic, but now there is an additional challenge,” Chang told VOA Mandarin this week.

No immediate threat

Other NATO members are responding to the increased military activities of Russia and China in the Arctic.

Canada released a new Arctic Foreign Policy report December 6 to address its growing military cooperation with other like-minded nations in the region.

The report recommends that Canada strengthen diplomatic and technological cooperation with NATO countries in the Arctic and like-minded nations such as Japan and South Korea. It also emphasizes enhancing Canada’s military presence in the Arctic.  Canada’s Arctic territory makes up about 40% of the country and more than 70% of its coastline.

Canada, Finland, and the U.S. in November agreed to jointly build icebreakers, ships to cut through frozen waters, a decision driven at least in part by a desire to counter Russia’s influence in the region. 

Despite their stepped-up joint military activities in the Arctic, analysts say China and Russia do not pose an immediate threat to the U.S. and its partners in the region.

“I think it’s really important to not overstate what the PRC is getting from Russia as well,” Ferguson said. “We know what it takes to operate with allies. We know the years of investment and trust building and interoperability required to make an alliance, and you know their flying in [a] circle together is not the same.”

Why is China in the Arctic?

China is a new player in the Arctic.

Beijing’s “Arctic Policy White Paper,” published in 2018, stated that China’s polar strategy focuses on issues such as climate change, environmental protection, scientific research, navigation routes, resource exploration and development, security and international governance.

“China will not and has no intention of using Arctic issues to promote its geopolitical interests,” said the Chinese Embassy to VOA Mandarin in an emailed response Wednesday to the comments made at the online CSIS discussion.

“As a non-Arctic country, China is an active participant, builder and contributor to Arctic affairs, contributing its wisdom and strength to the change and development of the Arctic,” the embassy statement said.

However, Yang Zhen and Ren Yanyan, researchers at the Shanghai University of Political Science and Law, suggest that China-Russia naval cooperation in the Arctic is a way to counterbalance what they call the U.S.’s “maritime hegemony.”

Meanwhile, Beijing and Moscow have been developing Arctic shipping routes, especially for Russian oil and gas, as Western sanctions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have largely halted the trade with Europe.   
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SAN FRANCISCO — A photojournalist who captured one of the most enduring images of World War II — the U.S. Marines raising the flag on the Japanese island of Iwo Jima — had a block in downtown San Francisco named for him Thursday.

Joe Rosenthal, who died in 2006 at age 94, was working for The Associated Press in 1945 when he took the Pulitzer Prize-winning photo.

After the war, he went to work as a staff photographer for the San Francisco Chronicle, and for 35 years until his retirement in 1981, he captured moments of city life both extraordinary and routine.

Rosenthal photographed famous people for the paper, including a young Willie Mays getting his hat fitted as a San Francisco Giant in 1957, and regular people, including children making a joyous dash for freedom on the last day of school in 1965.

The 600 block of Sutter Street, near downtown’s Union Square, became Joe Rosenthal Way after a short ceremony Thursday morning. The Marines Memorial Club, which sits on the block, welcomed the street’s new name.

Aaron Peskin, who heads the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, welcomed the city’s political elite, military officials and members of Rosenthal’s family to toast the late photographer, who was born in Washington, D.C., to Russian Jewish immigrant parents.

The famous photo became the centerpiece of a war bonds poster that helped raise $26 billion in 1945. Tom Graves, chapter historian for the USMC Combat Correspondents Association, which pushed for the street naming, said the image helped win the war.

“But I’ve grown over the years to appreciate also his role as a San Francisco newspaper photographer who, as Supervisor Peskin says, went to work every day photographing the city where we all live, we all love,” he said.

Graves and others said they look forward to tourists and locals happening upon the street sign, seeing Rosenthal’s name for perhaps the first time, and then going online to learn about the photographer with the terrible eyesight but an eye for composition.

Rosenthal never considered himself a wartime hero, just a working photographer lucky enough to document the courage of soldiers.

When complimented on his Pulitzer Prize-winning photo, Rosenthal said: “Sure, I took the photo. But the Marines took Iwo Jima.”
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Водночас до 22 вересня за майже 10 місяців року було у місті зафіксовано 16 загиблих і 84 поранених
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«Наші три переможці демонструють розмаїття тем, які досліджують письменники»
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WASHINGTON — U.S. lawmakers and diplomatic officials stressed the need for close cooperation among the United States, South Korea and Japan in response to the possible impeachment of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol. 

The officials say that Yoon, who could be removed from office as soon as this weekend over a short-lived imposition of martial law that threw his country into turmoil, has played an important role in the informal U.S. alliance that Washington has forged in the Asia-Pacific region. 

Senator Jack Reed, who spoke to VOA Korean on Wednesday, said Yoon’s diplomacy has “strengthened South Korea vis-a-vis China and Russia and other emerging threats in the Pacific.”  

“The collaboration between South Korea, Japan, the Philippines, Australia — that is probably going to do more to deter hostilities than anything else. So, that has to be maintained,” said Reed, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. 

He emphasized that the presence of a significant number of U.S. forces in South Korea “keeps the North Koreans from doing something rash and very destructive to South Korea.” More than 28,000 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea.

“That relationship — the United States and South Korea — I think, is made more formidable when Japan is also part of it, and the Philippines are also part of it,” Reed said. “And I think South Korean people have to recognize that we’re talking about their safety and security.” 

The embattled president has been criticized in his own country for pursuing a foreign policy that fostered closer relations with Japan, a country still reviled by many of his countrymen for its harsh colonial rule from 1910 to 1945.  

Senator Mark Warner, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told VOA Korean that a strong relationship between South Korea and Japan is beneficial to the overall Indo-Pacific region, which faces the rise of China. 

“We know there’s been historic tensions for centuries between Japan and Korea,” Warner said. “I actually think that level of collaboration between America, South Korea and Japan is in the best interests of the region.”  

Andy Kim, who was sworn in this week as the first Korean American U.S. senator, told VOA Korean he hopes “people recognize the importance of ensuring that South Korea remains engaged in the region.”  

“I do think that the work that has been happening between the United States, South Korea and Japan is important, and I hope that whoever is the leader and whatever happens next in South Korea, that type of work continues,” said Kim, who expressed shock at Yoon’s declaration of martial law on Dec. 3.  

The South Korean president said his decision was aimed at “eradicating pro-North Korean forces and to protect the constitutional order of freedom.” Soon after his declaration, a majority of South Korean lawmakers voted to overturn the order. Yoon, who was legally obligated to comply with the vote, did so six hours after his original declaration. 

South Korean lawmakers pushed Dec. 7 to impeach Yoon for the failed martial law declaration. The resolution accused Yoon of putting South Korea on the brink of war by operating a foreign policy “hostile to North Korea, China and Russia, but centered on Japan.” The opposition-led attempt failed because a boycott by Yoon’s ruling People’s Party left the legislature short of the necessary quorum.   

Yoon now faces another impeachment vote, which he vowed Thursday to “fight to the end.”  

Representative Marilyn Strickland, who recently secured a U.S. House seat for a third term, called for “good relationships” with allies, when asked about the controversy.  

“If I think about the safety and the freedom of the entire Indo-Pacific region, it is better to have good relationships with our allies than to be at odds with each other,” she said in a Zoom interview Tuesday with VOA Korean.  

‘Disturbing signals’ 

U.S. diplomatic and security experts said Yoon’s declaration of martial law was clearly wrong but questioned whether an impeachment resolution should be based on his approach to international relations. 

“If you look back at the impeachment resolution, one of the paragraphs in that impeachment resolution directly attacked President Yoon for the trilateral partnership that he had established with Japan and the United States. That was very disturbing,” said Evans Revere, the former principal deputy assistant secretary and acting assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs. He spoke to VOA Korean on Monday via Zoom.  

Kenneth Weinstein, the Japan chair at the Hudson Institute, shared a similar sentiment. 

“It’s disturbing in the sense that if the South Korean opposition is going to run on an anti-American, anti-Japanese agenda, it sends disturbing signals to North Korea about alliance unity. It sends disturbing signals to China about alliance unity,” Weinstein said. 

“And frankly, it sends disturbing signals to the incoming Trump administration about what kind of government South Korea is likely to have if President Yoon is impeached.” 

Harry Harris, former U.S. ambassador to South Korea during the first Trump administration, told VOA Korean on Tuesday via email that the cooperation among the U.S., South Korea and Japan should continue. 

“I’ve spoken for a while now how important President Yoon’s outreach to Japan is, especially his meetings in the U.S. and Japan with former Prime Minister [Fumio] Kishida,” he said. 

The U.S. State Department has sidestepped questions on the controversy.  

“We continue to call for the full and proper functioning of the ROK’s democratic institutions and processes, in accordance with the constitution,” said a spokesperson for the State Department in an email to VOA Korean on Saturday. ROK, or the Republic of Korea, is the official name of South Korea.  

“The United States is committed to the peace and security of the Korean Peninsula,” the spokesperson said.  

VOA’s Joon Ho Ahn contributed to this report.
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The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday passed the annual defense authorization bill, sending the mammoth measure to the Senate for consideration.  Representative Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said the legislation would help the U.S. better deter China.  

Click here for the full story in Mandarin. 
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U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said Wednesday he plans to have Kari Lake, a politician and former Arizona journalist, appointed head of the international government-funded broadcaster Voice of America.

Trump announced on his social media platform Truth Social that Lake would be appointed director of VOA. Lake is a close political ally of the president-elect and a former anchor for a Fox News television station in Phoenix, Arizona.

She worked in journalism for 27 years before leaving the profession in 2021 to run for Arizona governor.

During an unsuccessful run for Senate in 2024, Lake said Arizona should be a “standard bearer for America First policies.”

Trump also wrote Wednesday that he would soon announce his pick to head the U.S. Agency for Global Media, known as USAGM, which oversees VOA along with other U.S.-funded broadcasters. That position is presidentially nominated and requires Senate approval. Trump said his pick for CEO would appoint and work closely with Lake.

The chief executive of the publicly funded USAGM ensures that the broadcasters are meeting their missions to produce credible and accurate journalism to countries with limited free media.

VOA’s current director, Mike Abramowitz, sent an email to staff Thursday morning saying that he read the announcement about Lake Wednesday night and had not been given additional information beyond the social media post.

“I welcome a smooth transition of power for both USAGM and VOA. I intend to cooperate with the new administration and follow the process” for the appointment of the director of VOA, he wrote.

2020 law restructured agency management

The USAGM CEO has the power to hire or dismiss network heads, but under a bipartisan bill passed in December 2020, network head changes require a majority vote of the International Broadcasting Advisory Board.

The board consists of six presidentially appointed members who serve staggered terms, plus the secretary of state. Its function is to advise the CEO to ensure that he or she respects the editorial independence and integrity of the networks and grantees, and that the highest standards of journalism are upheld.

In a post on the social media platform X, Lake said she is honored to be considered for the VOA role. She said that VOA is a “vital international media outlet” that promotes “democracy and truth.”

“Under my leadership, the VOA will excel in its mission: chronicling America’s achievements worldwide.” VOA attempted to reach Lake for comment via the media section of her campaign website, but as of publication had not received a response.

VOA broadcasts to a weekly audience of 354 million people in 49 languages. Its current director, Abramowitz, is the former president of Freedom House and was a reporter and editor for The Washington Post for 24 years.
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WASHINGTON — The FBI should have done more to collect intelligence before the Capitol riot even though the bureau did prepare for the possibility of violence on Jan. 6, 2021, according to a watchdog report Thursday. It also said no undercover FBI employees were present that day and none of the bureau’s informants was authorized to participate.

The report from the Justice Department inspector general’s office knocks down a fringe conspiracy theory advanced by some Republicans in Congress that the FBI played a role in instigating the events that day, when rioters determined to overturn Republican Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden stormed the building in a violent clash with police.

The review was being released nearly four years after a dark chapter in history that shook the bedrock of American democracy.

Though narrow in scope, the report aims to shed light on gnawing questions that have dominated public discourse, including whether major intelligence failures preceded the riot and whether anyone in the crowd was for some reason acting at the behest of the FBI. It’s the latest major investigation about a day unlike any other in U.S. history that has already yielded congressional inquiries and federal and state indictments.

The watchdog found that 26 FBI informants were in Washington for election-related protests on Jan. 6, and though three entered either the building or a restricted area outside, none had been authorized to do so by the bureau or to break the law or encourage others to do so.

The report also found that the FBI did take appropriate steps to prepare for the events of Jan. 6, but failed to scour its 56 field offices across the country for relevant intelligence.

The watchdog’s lengthy review was launched days after the riot, following revelations that a Jan. 5, 2021, bulletin prepared by the FBI’s Norfolk, Virginia, field office warned of the potential for “war” at the Capitol. The former head of the FBI’s office in Washington has said that once he received that Jan. 5 warning, the information was quickly shared with other law enforcement agencies through a joint terrorism task force.

But Capitol Police leaders have said they were unaware of that document at the time and have insisted that they had no specific or credible intelligence that any demonstration at the Capitol would result in a large-scale attack on the building.

FBI Director Chris Wray, who announced this week his plans to resign at the end of President Joe Biden’s term in January, has defended his agency’s handling of the intelligence report. He told lawmakers in 2021 that the report was disseminated through the joint terrorism task force, discussed at a command post in Washington and posted on an internet portal available to other law enforcement agencies.

“We did communicate that information in a timely fashion to the Capitol Police and [Metropolitan Police Department] in not one, not two, but three different ways,” Wray said at the time.

The conspiracy theory that federal law enforcement officers entrapped members of the mob has been spread in conservative circles, including by some Republican lawmakers. Representative Clay Higgins recently suggested on a podcast that agents pretending to be Trump supporters were responsible for instigating the violence.

And former Republican Representative Matt Gaetz, who withdrew as Trump’s pick as attorney general amid scrutiny over sex trafficking allegations, sent a letter to Wray in 2021 asking how many informants were at the Capitol on Jan. 6 and if they were “merely passive informants or active instigators.”

It wasn’t previously clear how many FBI informants were in the crowd that day. Wray refused to say during a congressional hearing last year how many of the people who entered the Capitol and surrounding area on Jan. 6 were either FBI employees or people with whom the FBI had made contact. But Wray said the “notion that somehow the violence at the Capitol on January 6 was part of some operation orchestrated by FBI sources and agents is ludicrous.”

One FBI informant testified last year at the trial of former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio about marching to the Capitol with his fellow extremist group members, and described communicating with his handler as the mob of Trump supporters swarmed the building. But the informant wasn’t in any of the Telegram chats the Proud Boys were accused of using to plot violence in the days leading up to Jan. 6.
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Графіки погодинних відключень ГПВ в усіх областях будуть уніфіковані
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Washington — President Joe Biden is commuting the sentences of roughly 1,500 people who were released from prison and placed on home confinement during the coronavirus pandemic and is pardoning 39 Americans convicted of nonviolent crimes. It’s the largest single-day act of clemency in modern history. 

The commutations announced Thursday are for people who have served out home confinement sentences for at least one year after they were released. Prisons were uniquely bad for spreading the virus and some inmates were released in part to stop the spread. At one point, 1 in 5 prisoners had COVID-19, according to a tally kept by The Associated Press. 

Biden said he would be taking more steps in the weeks ahead and would continue to review clemency petitions. The second largest single-day act of clemency was by Barack Obama, with 330, shortly before leaving office in 2017. 

“America was built on the promise of possibility and second chances,” Biden said in a statement. “As president, I have the great privilege of extending mercy to people who have demonstrated remorse and rehabilitation, restoring opportunity for Americans to participate in daily life and contribute to their communities, and taking steps to remove sentencing disparities for non-violent offenders, especially those convicted of drug offenses.” 

The clemency follows a broad pardon for his son Hunter, who was prosecuted for gun and tax crimes. Biden is under pressure from advocacy groups to pardon broad swaths of people, including those on federal death row, before the Trump administration takes over in January. He’s also weighing whether to issue preemptive pardons to those who investigated Trump’s effort to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and are facing possible retribution when he takes office. 

Those pardoned Thursday had been convicted of nonviolent crimes such as drug offenses and turned their lives around, White House lawyers said. They include a woman who led emergency response teams during natural disasters; a church deacon who has worked as an addiction counselor and youth counselor; a doctoral student in molecular biosciences; and a decorated military veteran. 

The president had previously issued 122 commutations and 21 other pardons. He’s also broadly pardoned those convicted of use and simple possession of marijuana on federal lands and in the District of Columbia, and pardoned former U.S. service members convicted of violating a now-repealed military ban on consensual gay sex. 

Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., and 34 other lawmakers are urging the president to pardon environmental and human rights lawyer Steven Donziger, who was imprisoned or under house arrest for three years because of a contempt of court charge related to his work representing Indigenous farmers in a lawsuit against Chevron. 

Others are advocating for Biden to commute the sentences of federal death row prisoners. His attorney general, Merrick Garland, paused federal executions. Biden had said on the campaign trail in 2020 that he wanted to end the death penalty but he never did, and now, with Trump coming back into office, it’s likely executions will resume. During his first term, Trump presided over an unprecedented number of federal executions, carried out during the height of the pandemic. 

More pardons are coming before Biden leaves office on Jan. 20, but it’s not clear whether he’ll take action to guard against possible prosecution by Trump, an untested use of the power. The president has been taking the idea seriously and has been thinking about it for as much as six months — before the presidential election — but has been concerned about the precedent it would set, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss internal discussions. 

But those who received the pardons would have to accept them. New California Sen. Adam Schiff, who was the chairman of the congressional committee that investigated the violent Jan. 6 insurrection, said such a pardon from Biden would be “unnecessary,” and that the president shouldn’t be spending his waning days in office worrying about this. 

A president has the power to both pardon, in which a person is relieved of guilt and punishment, or commute a sentence, which reduces or eliminates the punishment but doesn’t exonerate the wrongdoing. It’s customary for a president to grant mercy at the end of his term, using the power of the office to wipe away records or end prison terms. 

Before pardoning his son, Biden had repeatedly pledged not to do so. He said in a statement explaining his reversal that the prosecution had been poisoned by politics. The decision prompted criminal justice advocates and lawmakers to put additional public pressure on the administration to use that same power for everyday Americans. It wasn’t a very popular move; only about 2 in 10 Americans approved of his decision, according to a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
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На словами керівника ОП, саме тому українська влада говорить з партнерами про важливість посилення України
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Світло не вимикатимуть у Львівській,  Івано-Франківській, Закарпатській і Волинській областях
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Fewer grandparents were living with and taking care of grandchildren, there was a decline in young children going to preschool and more people stayed put in their homes in the first part of the 2020s compared to the last part of the 2010s, according to U.S. Census Bureau data released Thursday, reflecting some of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The latest figures from the most comprehensive survey of American life compares the years of 2014-18 and 2019-23, timeframes before the COVID-19 pandemic and during the virus’ spread. The American Community Survey data show how lives were changed and family relationships altered by the pandemic and other occurrences like the opioid crisis.

The survey of 3.5 million households covers more than 40 topics, including ancestry, fertility, marital status, commutes, veterans status, disability and housing.

The decrease in grandparents’ taking care of their grandchildren is most likely the result of a decline in opioid-related deaths during the more recent timeframe since substance abuse is a leading reason that grandparents find themselves raising grandchildren. A reduction in the number of incarcerated women also likely played a role, said Susan Kelley, a professor emerita of nursing at Georgia State University.

“It’s very rarely for positive reasons that grandparents find themselves in this situation. Usually, it’s a tragic situation in an adult child’s life, either a death, incarceration or mental health issues which correlate with substance abuse,” Kelly said. “Many grandparents thrive in that role, but there are still socioeconomic and emotional burdens on the grandparents.”

A stronger economy in the most recent period also may be a reason that the number of grandparents living with their grandchildren declined from 7.2 million to 6.8 million by making it less likely that adult children with their own children were seeking housing help from their parents, she said.

The decline in the number of young children enrolled in preschool stemmed from an unwillingness to send young children to school and the closure of many schools at the height of the pandemic, according to the Census Bureau.

“These data show how the COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on patterns of early childhood education,” the bureau said in a separate report. “Future research will show if this was the start of a long-term trend or if enrollment will bounce back to prior levels.”

Americans continued to get older, with the median age rising to 38.7 from 37.9 and the nation’s share of senior citizens up from 16.8% from 15.2%. The share of households with a computer jumped to almost 95% from almost 89%, as did the share of households with a broadband connection to almost 90% from 80%.

Additionally, fewer people moved and more people stayed put in the most recent time period compared to the earlier one, in many cases because of rising home values and the limited availability of homes to buy.

Home values increased by 21.7% and the percentage of vacant homes dropped from 12.2% to 10.4%. The median home value jumped from $249,400 to $303,400 nationwide.

In some vacation communities popular with the wealthy, the bump was even more dramatic, such as in the county that is home to Aspen, Colorado, where it went from $758,800 to $1.1 million, and in the county which is home to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts, where it jumped from $812,400 to $1.1 million. 
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WASHINGTON — Following the fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government, the Biden administration said it would fully support a transparent and inclusive transition process toward a nonsectarian government accountable to the Syrian people.

“The transition process and new government must also uphold clear commitments to fully respect the rights of minorities, facilitate the flow of humanitarian assistance to all in need, prevent Syria from being used as a base for terrorism or posing a threat to its neighbors, and ensure that any chemical or biological weapons stockpiles are secured and safely destroyed,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement on Tuesday.

U.S. recognition of a new government in Damascus could lead to the lifting of sanctions that have crippled the Syrian economy. It’s an incentive the Biden administration can leverage at a moment when the country’s future is deeply uncertain.

“What we want to see in terms of governance in Syria is governance that is seen as credible and legitimate, that is sustainable, that meets the aspirations of the Syrian people,” White House national security communications adviser John Kirby said in an interview Tuesday with VOA. It has to be “the product of a Syrian-led process.”

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the rebels who toppled Assad, is a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist group. Its leader, Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, has a $10 million bounty on his head.

“This victory, my brothers, is a new chapter in the history of the entire Islamic nation,” he said in his first speech since his fighters rapidly took control of the country.

“It is a turning point for the region,” he said, singling out Iran — a message he knows will be received well in Israel and the U.S. “He [Assad] handed Syria over to Iranian ambitions, spreading sectarianism and corruption throughout the country.”

Jolani pledged in a statement Tuesday to “hold accountable” members of Assad’s regime who were “involved in torturing the Syrian people.”

In recent years, he has espoused sectarian tolerance and distanced himself from extremist ideology. He has sought to reassure Syria’s ethnic and religious minorities, which include Christians, Kurds, Druze and the Alawite community, a sect from which the Assad family originates.

But by delivering his victory speech not from the presidential palace but from the Great Mosque of Umayyad in Damascus — built in the eighth century by a Sunni caliphate —Jolani is sending a message to the region about his majoritarian movement.

His speech mirrors that of Islamic State’s first caliph, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, at the Great Mosque of al-Nuri in Mosul in 2014, Michael Rubin, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, told VOA.

“On the rebels’ own Telegram channel, there were statements saying, ‘We’ve taken the Umayyad Mosque. Next, we’re going to go for Al-Aqsa,’ which is in Jerusalem, of course. ‘Then, we’re going to go for the Kaaba,’ which is in Saudi Arabia,” Rubin said.

US involvement

President Joe Biden has moved quickly, sending Blinken to Turkey and Jordan Wednesday to consult with leaders after ordering more than 70 airstrikes on Islamic State targets in Syria on Sunday.

“The United States will work with our partners and stakeholders in Syria to help them seize an opportunity to manage the risks,” Biden said.

But on January 20, 2025, Biden will be replaced by President-elect Donald Trump, who is signaling that he wants the U.S. to stay out of the Syrian conflict.

“This is not our fight,” Trump said on social media. “Let it play out. Do not get involved!”

But the U.S. is already involved. It has about 900 troops deployed in Syria and backs a Syrian Kurdish rebel group. Washington also has close ties with all of Syria’s neighbors — Iraq, Lebanon, as well as allies Israel and Jordan, and NATO ally Turkey.

“They are directly impacted by what happens in Syria, and they are also in a position to influence what happens in Syria, for better or for worse,” said Ryan Crocker, a former U.S. ambassador to Syria, Iraq and Lebanon.

“Don’t disengage completely, certainly not,” he told VOA. “But if you don’t want to be overly engaged yourself, the United States of America, this is the time to work very closely with partners around the region.”

Under Trump’s “America First” doctrine, it’s unclear whether the U.S. would aim its diplomatic efforts toward what Biden wants — a future Syrian government that’s inclusive and nonsectarian.

Stakeholders make moves

Meanwhile, aside from the U.S., Israel and Turkey have bombed Syrian targets to protect their interests.

Israel has launched hundreds of strikes on military targets to further weaken what remains of the military of Tehran’s once-stalwart ally and keep weapons from falling into extremists’ hands.

In northern Syria, rebel groups supported by Turkey attacked U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters, who Ankara sees as allies of a separatist movement and displacing Syrian Kurds.

For now, Assad’s ally, Tehran, has lost much of its leverage. Weakened by the defeat of its proxies in Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza, it may employ pragmatism in dealing with Damascus.

“The Iranian foreign minister has talked about the new Syrians as the victory of the opposition, whereas in the past, they wouldn’t legitimize them as opposition. They spoke of them instead as terrorists,” Rubin said, a signal that Tehran is weighing whether it can work with the incoming government.

Russia, another Assad backer who has provided asylum for the embattled leader and his family, is lobbying to keep its two military bases in Syria. On Monday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Moscow would enter talks with incoming authorities about Russia’s future military presence.

Mohammed al-Bashir, Syria’s newly appointed caretaker prime minister who previously led the rebels’ civilian government, will run a transitional government until March 1, 2025, he said in remarks on Tuesday.
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told lawmakers Wednesday that the Biden administration was put in an impossible position ahead of the August 2021 U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. VOA Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson reports.
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