JERUSALEM, Israel – As fighting flares again in Syria and diplomacy intensifies over Gaza, new questions are emerging about who will shape the next phase of Middle East peace.
President Donald Trump spoke directly with the president of Syria, Ahmed al-Shaara, amid growing concern over ISIS detainees, regional instability, and renewed fighting in the country’s northeast.
Trump stated, “The president of Syria is working very, very hard – strong guy, tough guy, pretty rough resume. But you’re not going to put a choir boy in there and, you know, get the job done. I spoke with him yesterday because we were talking about the prisons and, you know, what was going on. We have some of the worst terrorists in the world in those prisons. And he’s watching it.”
Syria’s government and the U.S.-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) announced a new four-day truce after a previous ceasefire collapsed. The two sides have been clashing for two weeks following a breakdown in negotiations over a plan to merge their two forces.
The violence has raised alarms over thousands of ISIS detainees. The Al Hol Camp in northeastern Syria holds thousands of ISIS terrorists. Syria’s interior ministry accused the Kurdish SDF of allowing the release of the detainees. The SDF later confirmed it had withdrawn guards from the camp, but did not indicate whether the detainees escaped, blaming what it called “international indifference” toward the issue of the ISIS terrorist organization.
Despite the truce, uncertainty remains for people on the ground.
Syrian Civil Society activist Pirur Medi declared, “Any agreement or understanding that prevents the danger of invasion of the Kurdish areas, and keeps the displacement threat out for the civilians, is definitely a welcoming choice. However, this recent agreement must be conditioned on international assurances.”
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Meanwhile, attention is turning back to Israel and the Gaza Strip, where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that he received an invitation to join President Trump’s proposed Board of Peace, but raised objections to its structure.
“Turkish soldiers and Qatari soldiers will not be in the Strip,” he insisted. “We have a certain disagreement with our friends in the United States regarding the composition of the advisory council, as it’s called, the advisory council that will accompany the processes in Gaza.”
U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff defended the effort.
“I think we have overwhelming support, overwhelming,” he said. “Everybody believes that this is the pathway to bringing people together and being egalitarian about the decisions. The president wants to save lives, and this is going to be a very important platform.”
A signing ceremony for the Board of Peace is planned this week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani confirmed his country’s invitation.
He noted, “Yes, we were invited to that board. Of course, we are happy to be a contributor to peace and stability in our region. Now, there are a lot of challenges in the implementation, but we have no alternative path to seek right now.”
From Syrian prison camps holding terrorists to diplomatic maneuvering over Gaza, these developments underscore the shifting sands facing the Middle East.
