The Biden administration reportedly has been negotiating with the Taliban to swap three Americans being held in Afghanistan for a Guantanamo Bay prisoner who is alleged to have been a close associate of Osama bin Laden.
The talks, which have been ongoing since at least July of last year, involve exchanging suspected senior Al Qaeda aide Muhammad Rahim al Afghani for American citizens George Glezmann, Ryan Corbett and Mahmoud Habibi, who were detained in Afghanistan in 2022, according to The Wall Street Journal.
After the White House proposed that swap in November, the Taliban counteroffered, asking for Rahim and two others in exchange for Glezmann and Corbett, the newspaper reported.
House Foreign Affairs Committee members told the newspaper that they later were informed by national security adviser Jake Sullivan during a Dec. 17, 2024, classified session that Biden was still mulling the offer. One attendee added that during the meeting, panel chair Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, expressed concern that the Taliban’s counteroffer wasn’t a good deal for the U.S.
"The safety and security of Americans overseas is one of the Biden-Harris Administration’s top priorities, and we are working around the clock to ensure George, Ryan and Mahmoud’s safe return," Sean Savett, a National Security Council spokesman, recently told The Wall Street Journal.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
The Biden administration on Monday announced the transfer of 11 Yemeni detainees being held at a U.S. naval base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba to Oman, which has agreed to help re-settle them, amid steps to reduce the population at the controversial military facility.
All of the men were captured in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks and were held for more than two decades without being charged or put on trial, the New York Times reported.
"The United States appreciates the willingness of the government of Oman and other partners to support ongoing U.S. efforts focused on responsibly reducing the detainee population and ultimately closing the Guantanamo Bay facility," the Defense Department said in a statement.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House.
The 11 detainees were identified as: Uthman Abd al-Rahim Muhammad Uthman, Moath Hamza Ahmed al-Alwi, Khalid Ahmed Qassim, Suhayl Abdul Anam al Sharabi, Hani Saleh Rashid Abdullah, Tawfiq Nasir Awad Al-Bihani, Omar Mohammed Ali al-Rammah, Sanad Ali Yislam Al Kazimi, Hassan Muhammad Ali Bib Attash, Sharqawi Abdu Ali Al Hajj, and Abd Al-Salam Al-Hilah.
The transfer was carried out as part of an early-morning secret operation on Monday, days before Guantanamo’s most notorious prisoner, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, was scheduled to plead guilty to plotting the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in exchange for a life sentence rather than face a death-penalty trial, the Times reported.
The move had been in the works for about three years after an initial plan to conduct the transfer in October 2023 faced opposition from congressional lawmakers.
Authorities didn't say why the detainees were delivered to Oman, one of the United States' most stable allies in the Middle East, or what it gave the host country.
The men in the latest transfer included Shaqawi al Hajj, who had undergone repeated hunger strikes and hospitalizations at Guantanamo to protest his 21 years in prison.
With the release, the total number of men detained at Guantanamo is just 15, the fewest since 2002, the year it was turned into a detention site to house men from around the world arrested in connection with the "War on Terror."
The transfer leaves six never-charged men still being held at Guantanamo, two convicted and sentenced inmates, and seven others charged with the 2001 attacks, the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, and 2002 bombings in Bali.
Most of those at Guantanamo are from Yemen, a country ravaged by war and now dominated by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
As millions of Americans gather together with loved ones to celebrate the Christmas holiday and ring in the new year, hundreds of thousands of American men and women in uniform will mark the holidays away from family in decidedly less festive corners of the world.
As of June, 165,830 U.S. service members were on deployment across the Middle East, Indo-Pacific region and Europe. That figure has likely ticked higher amid recent unrest across the Middle East, and it doesn’t include service members working at U.S. bases over the holidays and civilian personnel on overseas contracts.
Here’s a look at where service members will spend the holidays on deployment across the world:
Around 43,000 troops are stationed across the Middle East as of October, an increase from the usual 34,000 amid the recent unrest and outbreak of war between Israel and Iranian proxy forces Hamas and Hezbollah.
The Pentagon announced in October it would be moving troops into Cyprus to prepare for escalating unrest in Lebanon. And last week the Pentagon divulged that some 2,100 troops were in Syria — not the 900 they had long claimed. Another 1,000 troops are in Iraq carrying out missions to thwart ISIS.
U.S. forces are stationed across Europe to support NATO forces and deter any potential Russian aggression.
Major areas of deployment include Germany (34,894), Italy (12,319) and the United Kingdom (10,180).
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin thanked U.S. troops for serving over the holiday season in a Christmas message.
"We know firsthand the holidays can be especially hard if you're far away from your loved ones. So for our troops stationed around the globe, we deeply appreciate your sacrifice," he said. "We know that your families serve too, and our military families are the foundation of America's strength."
A hostage rescue operator in Syria offered a glimmer of holiday hope in the case of a missing U.S. journalist, telling Fox News Digital he believes Austin Tice is alive and is hopeful that he will be found soon.
While refusing to divulge sensitive details, Grey Bull Rescue’s Bryan Stern asserted that he has intelligence that leads him to believe the 43-year-old Marine veteran and reporter who was kidnapped in Syria in 2012 is alive, or at least was up until recently.
"I would say 100%, I would bet that he is alive, or at least was as of two weeks ago," Stern told Fox News Digital from his hotel room in Syria. "I would bet that he's being cared for and tended to," he went on.
"I further submit that, he's findable," he went on. "We don’t recover dead bodies. Not to say that we wouldn’t, but we’re a nonprofit, we wouldn’t be putting resources toward that, freezing to death, missing my fourth Christmas with my family, if I didn’t believe he was alive and findable."
Stern has led high-level rescue missions in some of the most dangerous corners of the world, including Ukraine, Russia, Sudan, Israel, Haiti, Lebanon and the U.S. during natural disasters.
"We have done 12 jailbreaks from Russia," said Stern. "That is 12 more than the CIA."
The ousting of Bashar al-Assad and subsequent takeover of Syria by HTS has offered the Biden administration and Tice’s family a renewed sense of hope that the journalist could be found.
"He could have died of a stomach bug three years ago. And we just don't know. I don't think that that's the case," said Stern. "I have no reason to believe that that's the case. There's not a single piece of information, circumstantial or otherwise, that indicate anything near that. In fact, everything I have is counter to that."
The Syrian government for more than a decade refused to negotiate the release of Tice, who was abducted while reporting on the uprising against the Assad regime during the early stages of the Syrian civil war, which ultimately ended earlier this month after the Syrian president was ousted and fled to Moscow.
The mood in Syria is "cautiously happy" after decades of brutal oppression, according to Stern, and while the new governing force HTS is "not standing in the way" of finding Tice, they’re more preoccupied with learning how to govern than assisting in the search efforts.
The most likely scenario, according to Stern, is that Tice is being detained in a home in a neighborhood, looked after by Assad-friendly Alawites, the same branch of Islam as the former leader. Many of the country's prisons have now been searched or emptied and he doesn't believe President Vladimir Putin would hold Tice in Russia.
"The relationship between Assad and Putin is significantly overblown. [Assad] has been there over two weeks and they haven't even seen each other," said Stern.
"The Russians are like we don't need this problem, that is a great way to p--- off soon-to-be-President Trump, I mean who was obsessed with the Austin Tice case years ago."
Investigators believe Tice escaped years ago but was found in just such a neighborhood in Damascus and thrown back in detainment.
The State Department’s Rewards for Justice office is offering a $10 million reward for any information leading to the finding of Tice, but Stern said he believes anyone with information is more driven by tribal loyalty than monetary reward.
"Assad is living the good life in the tower in Moscow. But make no mistake, he still has reach inside of Syria," said Stern. "Half of the new government were Assad guys last week."
"That tribal nexus plus the fear of Bashar Assad being able to reach out and touch people still in Syria, why would they come forward?"
Another group working with Grey Bull asserted this week that they believe Tice is alive.
"We have data that Austin is alive till January 2024, but the president of the U.S. said in August that he is alive, and we are sure that he is alive today," Nizar Zakka, president of Hostage Aid Worldwide, said Tuesday, according to multiple reports.
"We are trying to be as transparent as possible and to share as much information as possible."
Zakka offered little evidence to back up its statements made from a press conference in Damascus, though he reportedly used an image to demonstrate the locations where Tice was held from November 2017 to February 2024.
U.S. Hostage Aid Worldwide has engaged with Tice’s family and U.S. authorities in the hunt for Tice, and the Biden administration has echoed a message of hope that Tice is alive, despite months of little word about his whereabouts.
The Biden administration has lifted a $10 million bounty on the head of Ahmed al-Sharaa, leader of the group that overthrew Bashar al-Assad in Syria.
In exchange, al-Sharaa, also known as Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, agreed to a U.S. demand not to allow terrorism groups in Syria to threaten the U.S. or Syria’s neighbors.
"We had a good, thoroughgoing discussion on a range of regional issues," Barbara Leaf, the U.S.’s top envoy to the Middle East, told reporters of her Friday meeting with al-Sharaa.
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) drove Assad out of Damascus earlier this month. While other rebel factions remain throughout the country, HTS has amassed control over much of Syria.
HTS was founded as an offshoot of al Qaeda but broke away from the group in 2016. It evolved from the Nusrah Front, which was designated as a terrorist group in 2012, and in 2018 the U.S. added HTS’ terrorism designation.
"It was a policy decision… aligned with the fact that we are beginning a discussion with HTS," Leaf explained.
"So if I’m sitting with the HTS leader and having a lengthy detailed discussion about the interests of the US, interests of Syria, maybe interests of the region, it's suffice to say a little incoherent then to have a bounty on the guy’s head."
The group has been trying to shake its extremist reputation and the designation, with al-Sharaa claiming he does not want Syria to become the next Afghanistan and he believes in education for women.
"We've had universities in Idlib for more than eight years," Sharaa told BBC, referring to Syria's northwestern province that HTS has held since 2011.
"I think the percentage of women in universities is more than 60%."
"He came across as pragmatic," Leaf said. "It was a good first meeting. We will judge by deeds, not just by words."
U.S. officials have visited Syria to push for a pragmatic government and to find information on the whereabouts of detained U.S. journalist Austin Tice.
The U.S. has had a mixed relationship with HTS due to its militant Islamist roots.
Al-Sharaa has said HTS is not a terrorist group because it does not target civilians or civilian areas, and they consider themselves to be the victims of the crime of Assad's regime.
The U.S. has launched an aggressive campaign of airstrikes in northeastern Syria to take out ISIS militants, fearing a resurgence amid the upheaval in Syria which could lead to the release of more than 8,000 IS prisoners, "a significant security concern," according to the Pentagon.
The Pentagon revealed on Thursday that the U.S. doubled the number of its forces from 900 to roughly 2,000 to fight IS before Assad’s fall.
The fall of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad was the crescendo of a remarkably bad year for the Iranian regime.
The Islamic Republic suffered major blows in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria, diminishing the power of its so-called Axis of Resistance. Its currency officially became the lowest valued in the world and when Israel decimated its proxy forces, the U.S. elected a president whom Iran so despises that it spent years trying to assassinate him.
Here’s a look back at blows suffered by Ayatollah Ali Khameini and his regime over the past year:
In April, Israel bombed the Iranian embassy in Syria, prompting Iran to strike back with more than 300 drones and missiles aimed into Israel. But Israel worked with the U.S., Jordan and Saudi Arabia to shoot down nearly every missile and drone.
The late Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi was killed in a helicopter crash while visiting a remote area. Iran has blamed the crash on dense fog. Raisi was a protégé and potential successor of Iran’s supreme leader, Khameini.
While Iran inaugurated a new president this summer, Israel infiltrated to take out Hamas commander Ismail Haniyeh while he was visiting Tehran for the inauguration. While Haniyeh was staying in a VIP government guest house, Israel detonated a remote-controlled bomb.
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) took out Hamas head Yahya Sinwar after encountering him on a routine patrol in the Gaza city of Rafah. Sinwar was the mastermind behind the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel and was one of the most wanted men of the war.
Hamas has lost thousands of fighters and much of its leadership ranks to Israel’s attacks and is nowhere near the threatening force on Israel’s borders Iran hoped it would be.
Iran’s currency tanked to an all-time low upon news of the Trump election, and the expectation that he might bring back a "maximum pressure" policy.
The Iranian rial is down 46% this year, making it officially the least-valuable currency in the world.
Iran has long vowed revenge for Trump approving the 2019 killing of Gen. Qassem Soleimani – and U.S. intelligence revealed Tehran plots to kill the president-elect.
After the Trump administration pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal in 2018, it imposed harsh sanctions on the regime to stop its funding of proxies abroad, banning U.S. citizens from trading with Iran or handling Iranian money.
It also punished entities in other countries that did business with Iran, by cutting them off from the dollar.
President Joe Biden often waived enforcement of such sanctions, keen to bring Tehran back to the negotiating table to prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons and fearful of driving up global oil prices.
Iran gained access to more than $10 billion through a State Department sanctions waiver that allowed Iraq to continue buying energy from Iran, which the Biden administration argues is necessary to keep lights on in Baghdad.
In the fall, Israel reoriented much of its efforts toward pummeling Hezbollah after a series of cross-border attacks from the Lebanese militant group. Israel targeted Hezbollah’s leadership and detonated hundreds of pagers the group had been using to communicate. At the end of November, Hezbollah agreed to a ceasefire where it and Israel must both end their armed presences in southern Lebanon.
Both sides have claimed the other has broken the fragile truce, but it has ostensibly held for weeks.
Syrian rebels sent Iran's Quds forces, an extension of the Revolutionary Guard Corps, running as they captured Damascus and pushed out President Bashar al-Assad. Iran's forces had been in Syria propping up Assad since civil war broke out in 2011, but had been diminished since the outbreak of war elsewhere in the Middle East.
Syria's new government is set to be run by Sunni Muslims, hostile to Iran's Shiite government. And Iran lost a key supply line through Syria it had used to arm Hezbollah in its fight against Israel.
A top aide on Vice President Harris' failed presidential campaign recently called for more cultural voices like the vocal anti-America and anti-Israel Twitch star, Hasan Piker, who previously faced backlash for saying that "America deserved 9/11."
Harris' former deputy campaign manager, Rob Flaherty, said during a recent interview that Democrats are "losing hold of culture" and laid out a strategy for them to develop a "whole thriving system" ahead of future elections.
"We need a whole thriving ecosystem," Flaherty told Semafor. "It’s not just Pod Save America, though I think we should have more of them. It’s not just Hasan Piker. We should have more Hasan Pikers. It’s also the cultural creators, the folks who are one rung out who influence the nonpartisan audience. Those things all need to happen together."
"The reality is it’s not going to be big media organizations. It’s going to be a network and a constellation of individual personalities, because that’s how people get their information now," he added.
Flaherty, who previously served as the director of digital strategy for the Biden White House, is likely to face backlash for calling for "more Hasan Pikers" due to Piker's past controversial comments. Piker, who previously raised more than $1 million for Palestinian aid, has used his platform with millions of followers to downplay and justify terrorist attacks such as Oct. 7 and 9/11 as acts of resistance in recent years.
During a 2019 livestream, Piker praised the "brave f---ing soldier" who wounded conservative U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, while he was deployed to Afghanistan as a Navy SEAL, asking, "Didn't he go to war and, like, literally lose his eye because some mujahideen, a brave f---ing soldier, f---ed his eyehole with their d---?"
He went on to say that "America deserved 9/11, I’m saying it," before later walking it back and saying it was "inappropriate." However, in another stream this year, Piker joked about 9/11 again, saying, "Oh my god, 9/11 2 is going to be so sick" and "give Saudi Arabia a nuke so they can do 9/11 2."
In another stream, Piker broadcast propaganda from the Houthis, an Iranian-backed group in Yemen that has been designated by the U.S. as a terrorist group. Instead of explicitly addressing the materials as questionable propaganda, the streamer instead expressed sympathy and admiration for the group.
"They do musicals about, like, their f---ing actions all the time," Piker said of the terrorist propaganda. "They love walking over like the American flag and the Israeli flag, side by side."
"They do not care about the heavy missiles … they will literally take the war to them no matter what. … For them, it's an act of resistance. You know what I mean?" he added.
"It doesn't matter if f---ing rapes happened on Oct. 7," Piker said in a May 22 stream. "It doesn't change the dynamic [of Palestinians and Israelis] for me."
During an April 18 stream, Piker also expressed that Hamas was the "lesser evil" next to the Israeli military.
While Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and others have been on Piker's platform, Dem Rep. Ritchie Torres of New York wrote a letter this year to top executives at Twitch and Amazon expressing "alarm about the amplification of antisemitism on Twitch at the hands of Hasan Piker" and said Piker has "emerged as the poster child for the post-October 7th outbreak of antisemitism in America."
"Outside the context of October 7th, Mr. Piker has even joked and mused about men date-raping women on a college campus and has posted an image of a handgun on top of a United States Senator in what appears to be open invitation to gun violence against a sitting elected official," Torres said. "Inviting one’s followers to shoot an elected official, whether it be done in earnest or in jest, is the kind of threat that warrants serious attention from federal law enforcement."
Piker’s Twitch streams regularly hit more than a million views and often have as many as 30,000 viewers at a given time.
Fox News Digital reached out to Flaherty for comment but did not receive a response.
President-elect Trump tangled with a reporter who asked him Monday if he would entertain the idea of preemptive strikes on Iran.
Trump, following remarks at Mar-a-Lago, took questions from the media, and one reporter asked if he would target Iran’s nuclear facilities,
"Well I can’t tell you that. I mean, it's a wonderful question, but how can I – am I going to do preemptive strikes? Why would I say that?" the president-elect responded.
"Can you imagine if I said yes or no? You would say, ‘That was strange that he answered that way.’ Am I going to do preemptive strikes on Iran? Is that a serious question? How could I answer a question like that?" Trump continued.
"How could I tell you a thing like that now?" Trump responded. "You don't talk about that before something may or may not happen. I don't want to insult you, I just think it's just not something that I would ever answer. Having to do with there or any other place in the world."
"We're trying to help very strongly and getting the hostages back, as you know, with Israel and the Middle East," Trump added Monday.
"We're working very much on that. We're trying to get the war stopped, that horrible, horrible war that's going on in Ukraine with Russia. We're going to, we've got a little progress. It's a tough one. It's a nasty one. It's nasty," he also said.
Hezbollah lost its most important supply route from Iran through Syria with the fall of dictator Bashar al-Assad, the group’s chief admitted Sunday.
It was the first public acknowledgment of how upheaval in Syria had hurt the Iranian proxy, which had propped up Assad and is now fighting a war in Lebanon with Israel. Weapons to counter the Israeli campaign flowed from Iran through Syria and into Lebanon for Hezbollah.
"Yes, Hezbollah lost in this phase its military supply line through Syria, but this loss is merely a detail in the overall of the resistance," said Naim Qassem in a televised address.
"The supply line might come back normally with the new regime, and we can always look for other ways, the resistance is flexible and can adapt," he added.
Assad’s ousting jeopardized Syria’s close ties to Iran. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the group that led the overthrow of Assad, had lamented that Syria had become a "playground for Iran." Hezbollah had fought off the rebel groups on Assad’s behalf.
As it became clear Assad’s grip on power was coming undone, Hezbollah and Iran’s military forces made their exit from Syria.
Qassem took over as Hezbollah’s secretary general in October after its leader for three decades, Hassan Nasrallah, was killed in Israeli airstrikes south of Beirut. Hezbollah and Iran had long intervened on behalf of Assad in Syria’s 13-year civil war, but depleted by war with Israel, refused to come to his defense during the swift takeover of Damascus.
Israel has also used the chaos of Assad’s fall to destroy the Syrian army’s strategic and chemical weapons in more than 350 airstrikes across the country. And it has moved into the buffer zone that separates it from Syria – the first time the Golan buffer zone has seen Israeli forces since 1973.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he is not interested in meddling in Syria’s domestic politics but is looking to protect Israel’s borders. "We have no interest in a conflict with Syria. We will determine Israeli policy regarding Syria according to the reality on the ground," he said Sunday, adding Israel would continue to strike "as necessary, in every arena and at all times" to prevent the rebuilding of Hezbollah.
HTS, a former al Qaeda affiliate, has sought to portray itself as a moderating force in Syria, and the U.S. has been in direct contact with the leading rebel group. But Israel is leery of the group’s long-term intentions.
"The immediate risks to the country have not disappeared, and the latest developments in Syria are increasing the intensity of the threat – despite the moderate appearance rebel leaders are pretending to portray," Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Sunday.
Hezbollah kicked up its cross-border attacks on Israel after Oct. 7, 2023, in support of Hamas, another Iranian proxy. Since late November, the cease-fire has mostly held, despite some Israeli airstrikes against Hezbollah operatives.
Qassem defended his decision to stick to the cease-fire, saying it did not mean the end of Hezbollah's "resistance," but was necessary to "stop the aggression" of Israel in Lebanon.
Qatar hosted the tournament last year, which was won by Argentina, and the country was dogged by years-long allegations of rights abuses of migrant workers needed to build its stadiums.
However, FIFA and Saudi officials have said hosting the 2034 tournament can accelerate change, including more freedoms and rights for women, with FIFA President Gianni Infantino on Wednesday calling the World Cup a "unique catalyst for positive social change and unity."
The win will kick off a decade of scrutiny on Saudi labor laws and treatment of workers needed to help build and upgrade 15 stadiums, hotels and transportation networks ahead of the 104-game tournament.
During the bid campaign, FIFA has accepted limited scrutiny of Saudi Arabia’s human rights record that was widely criticized this year at the United Nations.
Saudi and international rights groups and activists warned FIFA it has not learned the lessons of Qatar’s much-criticized preparations to host the 2022 World Cup.
"At every stage of this bidding process, FIFA has shown its commitment to human rights to be a sham," said Steve Cockburn, Amnesty International’s head of labor rights and sport, who added that it is "reckless" to have Saudi Arabia host. Cockburn also said "many lives" will be "at risk."
The Saudis have dipped into the sports world with the Public Investment Fund financially backing LIV Golf. Cristiano Ronaldo, who said in an X post he expects the 2034 Cup to be "the best … ever," also joined a league in Saudi Arabia in 2022, making $75 million annually.
A top Israeli diplomat insisted his nation is "not getting involved" in Syria’s domestic politics after the nation launched an aggressive campaign of airstrikes and seized control of a buffer zone in Syria.
"We are not getting involved in what's happening domestically inside Syria. But we have concerns about our border," Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, told Fox News Digital.
"It’s been a quiet border, relatively, but we hope it will continue to be the same."
Israel has launched an assault on military and chemical weapons sites within Syria, fearing they could fall into the wrong hands after the toppling of President Bashar al-Assad and his government over the weekend.
The ouster left a power vacuum that leaves Israel and the U.S. to wonder which forces may seize dominance in the nation and how friendly they might be.
In that vacuum, Israel moved troops into the Golan buffer zone for the first time since it was established after the 1973 Mideast war.
Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia have condemned the Israeli incursion, accusing it of exploiting the situation.
Danon seemed hopeful the next Syrian government would not be under the thumb of Iran but warned "bad actors" had been involved in the overthrow of Assad.
"Iran was heavily invested in Syria. And I'm sure that today it will change, and the Iranians will not be welcome anymore in Syria. So, on that front, I think it's an achievement. But, at the same day, we have to look what's happening on other fronts," said Danon.
"We have to remember that it's not like a peaceful revolution. You know, they walked with al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations. So, we have to pay attention to that."
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) was the key faction behind the fall of Damascus and the fleeing of Assad and now controls the capital city. But the Islamist militant group was founded as an offshoot of al Qaeda, and its leader has a $10 million bounty on his head.
The group in recent years has worked to soften its image and lobbied to be delisted as a terrorist organization by the U.S.
Israel has also taken control of Mount Hermon, the highest point on the border between the two countries and a blind spot in its defenses that Iran had been exploiting to send low-flying drones.
"That was a defensive, temporary act," said Danon. "We want to see what’s happening there."
The ambassador said Israel hopes Syria will have a "better future," but its only goal is to "not allow terrorists to be on the fence."
"For more than 50 years, the Assad family tortured the Syrian people, massacred hundreds of thousands of civilians. So, we are the one humanitarian point of view. We do hope that they will have a better life."
The fall of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, the culmination of years of civil war, has given way to a power vacuum with different factions protecting their own interests – and vying for power in the Middle Eastern nation.
The U.S., worried about the resurgence of an ISIS stronghold, has struck targets associated with the Islamic State in central Syria.
Turkey, which controls a zone of Syria on its northern border, has continued to attack U.S.-backed Kurdish forces.
Both work with different proxy groups.
Here’s a look at the different forces vying for control in the region:
HTS was the key faction behind the fall of Damascus and the fleeing of Assad, and now controls the capital city. But the Islamist militant group is far from a U.S. ally – its leader, Abu Mohammed al-Golani, has a $10 million U.S. bounty on his head and has been designated a terrorist since 2013. The group governed just a sliver of northwest Syria in Idlib.
The group, founded as an al Qaeda affiliate, still remains largely aligned with al Qaeda but focuses on establishing fundamentalist Islamic rule in Syria rather than a global caliphate.
The U.N., U.S. and Turkey all designate HTS as a terrorist organization. The group, in recent years, has worked to soften its image and lobbied to be delisted as a terrorist group, highlighting its government services in Idlib and promising to protect religious and cultural sites, even churches, in Aleppo.
Experts believe Turkey, which has long looked to topple Assad, may have been at play in HTS’ offensive.
Syria’s forces loyal to Assad have staved off coup attempts since 2011, often through violent crackdowns on protests and rebellion.
By 2020, government troops backed by Iran, Russia and Lebanese Hezbollah had pushed rebel forces back to the northwest corner of Syria.
In the waning days of November, rebel factions swiftly overpowered government troops, seizing control of Aleppo – a city previously reclaimed by Assad's forces in 2016. Eight days later, the insurgents successfully captured not only Aleppo, but also Hama, Homs and Damascus.
On Monday, HTS granted Assad’s forces "a general amnesty for all military personnel conscripted under compulsory service."
"Their lives are safe and no one may assault them," the group said in a statement.
The SNA is a loosely bound coalition of Turkish-backed forces primarily intent on fighting Kurdish forces. But the coalition, which carries out Turkish President Recep Erdogan’s anti-Assad efforts, was also involved in the fall of Damascus. The groups have – in the past – also battled HTS and other Islamic State terrorists.
The SNA coalition believes U.S.-backed Kurdish forces in Syria to be linked to Turkey’s Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a militant group that has launched Kurdish nationalist attacks in Turkey.
SDF is a coalition of U.S.-backed Kurdish forces, centered in northeastern Syria. They have long worked alongside the U.S. in battling Islamic State forces in Syria.
In addition to fighting the Islamic State, they’ve been fending off attacks from Turkish-backed fighters.
Kurdish forces were not involved in the offensive that toppled Assad, but they hailed the offensive campaign.
"In Syria, we are living through historic moments as we witness the fall of the authoritarian regime in Damascus. This change presents an opportunity to build a new Syria based on democracy and justice that guarantees the rights of all Syrians," said Mazlum Abdi, the commander of the SDF, on Sunday morning.
After relatively friendly relations with Syria throughout the early 2000s, Turkey condemned Assad over the violent 2011 crackdown on protesters.
While Turkey and the U.S. are allies – bound to protect each other through NATO – they are on opposing sides in Syria, even as both celebrated Assad's downfall. The Turkish military fired on U.S.-backed forces in Syria over the weekend, where fighting erupted between rebel groups in Manbij, a Kurdish-controlled city near Syria's border with Turkey. Turkey has long had a goal of pushing the Kurds away from its border, and is looking to use the current turmoil to capture control along the border and decimate the Kurdish population there.
Kurdish separatists have fought Turkey for years, looking to carve out their own autonomous nation.
Since 2015, Russia has effectively acted as Assad’s air force, but its capacity to intervene on the dictator’s behalf has diminished since resources were needed for the war with Ukraine.
Iran was Assad’s biggest supporter, providing arms and military advice and directing its proxy Lebanese Hezbollah to fight the insurgents. But Hezbollah had to direct its troops back to Lebanon to fight Israel, leaving Assad’s forces in a weakened position.
HTS leader al-Golani lamented in a speech on Sunday that Syria had become "a playground for Iranian ambitions."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu credited his forces’ weakening of Hezbollah for playing a key role in the fall of Assad. Israel has consistently launched strikes against Syria with the strategic aim of disrupting the channels Iran uses to supply arms to Hezbollah.
After Assad’s fall, Israel, on Sunday, struck Assad’s chemical weapons facilities within Syria, for fear of what hands they may fall into in his absence.
Israel also captured control of a buffer zone within the Golan Heights, the first time they’ve captured territory in Syria since the war in 1973.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) moved in on Sunday and told residents to remain in their homes until further notice. They said they needed to capture the territory to ensure border security.
They also captured Mount Hermon – the highest point on the border between the two countries and a blind spot in their defenses that Iran had been exploiting to send low-flying drones.
Some 900 U.S. troops remain in Syria, where they are partnered with the SDF to fight ISIS.
On Sunday, President Biden said U.S. troops would remain there to "ensure stability."
The U.S. carried out dozens of precision strikes on more than 75 ISIS targets in central Syria over the weekend to prevent the terrorist group from exploiting the unrest to rebuild.
"We're clear-eyed about the fact that ISIS will try to take advantage of any vacuum to re-establish its capability to create a safe haven," Biden said. "We will not let that happen."
Biden said the U.S. would support Syria's neighbors – Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and Israel – "should any threat arise from Syria during this transition."
The president added that the fall of Assad created a "historic opportunity for the long-suffering people of Syria."
The Pentagon unveiled a new counter-drone strategy after a spate of incursions near U.S. bases prompted concerns over a lack of an action plan for the increasing threat of unmanned aerial vehicles.
Though much of the strategy remains classified, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will implement a new counter-drone office within the Pentagon – Joint Counter-Small UAS Office – and a new Warfighter Senior Integration Group, according to a new memo.
The Pentagon will also begin work on a second Replicator initiative, but it will be up to the incoming Trump administration to decide whether to fund this plan. The first Replicator initiative worked to field inexpensive, dispensable drones to thwart drone attacks by adversarial groups across the Middle East and elsewhere.
The memo warned that the increased use of unmanned systems must reshape U.S. tactics, as they make it easier for adversaries to "surveil, disrupt and attack our forces … potentially without attribution."
The plan outlines a five-pronged approach: deepening understanding of enemy drones, launching offensive campaigns to thwart their ability to build such systems, improving "active and passive" defenses to such attacks, rapid increase of production of counter-drone systems and making counter-drone focus a top priority for future force development.
For the past year, Iran-backed Houthi rebels have been using small, one-way unmanned aerial systems to strike western shipping routes in the Red Sea.
That has led to perilous waters along a trade route that typically sees some $1 trillion in goods pass through it, as well as shipments of aid to war-torn Sudan and the Yemeni people.
Additionally, the cost of U.S. response to such attacks is disproportionate. While the Houthi drones are estimated to cost around $2,000 each, the naval missiles the U.S. fires back can run around $2 million a shot.
In September, Houthis took out two U.S. Reaper drones in a week, machinery that costs around $30 million a piece.
Deadly drone strikes have also been launched by both sides in Russia's war on Ukraine.
"Unmanned systems pose both an urgent and enduring threat to U.S. personnel, facilities, and assets overseas," the Pentagon said in a statement on Thursday announcing the strategy.
"By producing a singular Strategy for Countering Unmanned Systems, the Secretary and the Department are orienting around a common understanding of the challenge and a shared approach to addressing it."
Three U.S. service members were killed in a drone strike in January in Jordan. Experts warned the U.S. lacks a clear counter-drone procedure after 17 unmanned vehicles traipsed into restricted airspace over Langley Air Force Base in Virginia last December.
The mystery drones swarmed for more than two weeks. Lack of a standard protocol for such incursions left Langley officials unsure of what to do – other than allow the 20-foot-long drones to hover near their classified facilities.
Langley is home to some of the nation’s most vital top secret facilities and the F-22 Raptor stealth fighters.
Two months prior to Langley, in October 2023, five drones flew over the Energy Department’s Nevada National Security Site, used for nuclear weapons experiments. U.S. authorities were not sure who was behind those drones either.
The Air Force’s Plant 42 in California, home to highly classified aerospace development, has also seen a slew of unidentified drone incursions in 2024, prompting flight restrictions around the facility.
Islamist leader Abu Mohammed al-Golani, who led a lightning offensive through Syria, has a long history of extremism despite a recent appeal to moderate policies.
"Golani is a specially designated global terrorist," Bill Roggio, managing editor of Long War Journal, told Fox News Digital. "He was a member of al Qaeda… the U.S. keeps him on the list for a reason."
Roggio’s comments come after Islamist rebels led by Golani’s organization, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), led an offensive throughout Syria that resulted in the capture of the country’s capital, Damascus, and the overthrow of the regime of Bashar Assad, who fled the country Saturday as rebels closed in on the city.
Golani was first drawn to jihadi thinking following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S., according to a report from the Guardian.
He left Syria and joined al Qaeda in Iraq, only to return to his home country in 2011 during a revolt against Assad’s regime, eventually joining the side of al Qaeda’s Ayman al-Zawahiri in 2013.
Golani would cut ties with al Qaeda in 2016 and lead a merger between HTS and other Islamist groups in northwest Syria in 2017, bringing him control of territory that had fallen out of government hands during the country’s long civil war.
The U.S. Department of State designated Geolani as a specially designated global terrorist in May 2013, citing his leadership in multiple terrorist attacks throughout Syria that often targeted civilians.
But the terrorist leader has attempted to strike a more moderate tone in recent years, a trend that continued as rebels began their sweeping offensive across Syria.
"No one has the right to erase another group. These sects have coexisted in this region for hundreds of years, and no one has the right to eliminate them," Golani said in regard to Syria’s religious minority groups in an interview with CNN Friday.
But Roggio said there is little evidence that moderate tone would continue as rebels take charge of Syria, arguing Golani plays a good political game.
"He plays the moderate game very well, but he’s a global jihadist. He’s an expert at manipulating," Roggio said.
While Roggio acknowledged there is legitimate justification for Syrians to cheer for the fall of Assad, the worry now turns to what comes next for the long-suffering population.
"It’s understandable that many Syrians are ecstatic over the fall of Assad’s regime, he was a monster," Roggio said. "But I think they’re going to find that what replaces him isn’t going to be much better."
President-elect Trump tapped his daughter Tiffany Trump's father-in-law, Lebanese-American businessman Dr. Massad Boulos, to join his Cabinet as senior adviser on Arab and Middle Eastern affairs.
"I am proud to announce that Massad Boulos will serve as Senior Advisor to the President on Arab and Middle Eastern affairs," the president-elect wrote on TRUTHSocial. "Massad is an accomplished lawyer and a highly respected leader in the business world, with extensive experience on the International scene. He has been a longtime proponent of Republican and Conservative values, an asset to my Campaign, and was instrumental in building tremendous new coalitions with the Arab American Community. Massad is a dealmaker, and an unwavering supporter of PEACE in the Middle East. He will be a strong advocate for the United States, and its interests, and I am pleased to have him on our team!"
Boulos led efforts to engage the Arab American community, organizing dozens of meetings across Michigan and other areas with large Arab populations.
Some sessions also featured Richard Grenell, former acting director of national intelligence, who was well-regarded by those who met with him.
Trump campaign officials and supporters told Reuters that Boulos helped flip some of the 300,000 Arab Americans and Muslims in Michigan who largely backed Biden in 2020 but later grew frustrated with Biden's policies in Israel, Gaza and Lebanon.
Boulos' son, Michael, and Tiffany Trump were married in November 2022 at Mar-a-Lago. Trump revealed during a speech to the Detroit Economic Club in October that Tiffany is pregnant.
Boulos is a billionaire with extensive business connections to Nigeria. He was born in Lebanon but moved to Texas as a teenager. He attended the University of Houston and later became a U.S. citizen.
According to Reuters, Boulos' father and grandfather were involved in Lebanese politics, and his father-in-law backed the Free Patriotic Movement, a Christian party affiliated with Hezbollah.
Three sources told Reuters that Boulos' appeal centers on his ability to engage with different factions within Lebanese politics, as he's even maintained relations with Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed Shi'ite Muslim party and terrorist group that largely controls the parliament. Boulos is friends with Suleiman Frangieh, a Christian politician backed by Hezbollah for the presidency, and has been in communication with the Lebanese Forces Party, a Christian faction that staunchly opposes Hezbollah.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
President Biden announced Tuesday that Israel has reached a ceasefire agreement with Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon that would end nearly 14 months of fighting, and while some U.S. lawmakers on both sides of the aisle congratulated efforts to reach a stop to the conflict, others suggest this is nothing but a political football.
While speaking from the White House Rose Garden, Biden said Israel and Lebanon agreed to the deal, adding that Israel retains the right to defend itself should Hezbollah break the pact.
"Let's be clear. Israel did not launch this war. The Lebanese people did not seek that war either. Nor did the United States," Biden said. "Security for the people of Israel and Lebanon cannot be achieved only on the battlefield. And that's why I directed my team to work with the governments of Israel and Lebanon, to forge a cease-fire, to bring a conflict between Israel and Hezbollah to a close."
Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder was asked about a potential cease-fire deal during a press briefing on Tuesday and said the Department of Defense (DoD) was "very supportive" of the ceasefire. He also said the DoD plays an important role in working with partners in the Middle East region to prevent a wider conflict.
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., who serves as the chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence called the agreement "a welcome development for the region."
"This agreement to end the war between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, which has killed thousands of people, is a welcome development for the region and should increase pressure on Hamas to reach a ceasefire agreement to end the fighting and destruction in the Gaza Strip, which has already claimed so many innocent lives," Warner said. "I applaud diplomatic efforts by the Biden administration and other international partners over many months in helping to reach this point."
Also weighing in on the deal was Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who said he was pleased to hear the agreement between Israel and Hezbollah had been reached.
"Well done to all those involved in reaching this agreement," he said. "I appreciate the hard work of the Biden Administration, supported by President Trump, to make this ceasefire a reality. This ceasefire will protect Israel from another October 7th and will give the people of Lebanon a break from the fighting.
"My hope is that we can soon achieve a ceasefire in Gaza and allow peaceful solutions to replace endless conflict," he added.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, on the other hand, was not so quick to congratulate the Biden administration’s efforts in reaching a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.
He said Israeli allies accomplished enormous military successes over the past year against Hezbollah, resulting in the death of thousands of Hezbollah terrorists and eliminating the entire command of the Iranian-backed terrorist group.
"These actions have directly contributed to vital American national security interests, including directly by liquidating terrorist leaders who had the blood of hundreds of American on their hands," Cruz said. "Indeed, the U.S.-Israel relationship is at the core of U.S. interests in the Middle East, and American policy should be to provide unequivocal military and diplomatic support to our Israeli allies to fully ensure their security."
He then turned to the Biden administration’s tactics and timing in conjunction with President-elect Trump’s return to the White House.
"The Biden administration has spent the last four years pathologically obsessed with undermining Israel and boosting Iran, including by coercing our Israeli allies to cede maritime territory to Hezbollah," Cruz noted. "They are now using the transition period to the Trump administration and a Republican Congress to try to lock in those efforts — and to constrain the incoming administration — by establishing what they believe to be irreversible diplomatic, legal, and military policies. However, these and similar international policies are not irreversible."
Cruz and 10 other senators signed a letter saying the U.S. will re-evaluate its relationship with the United Nations and with Palestinians if Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas fulfills a pledge he made to secure the expulsion of Israel from the U.N. General Assembly.
Cruz also said he joined his colleagues in vowing to act against the International Criminal Court for undermining American and Israeli interests by issuing arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and said everyone involved in the decision should face American sanctions.
He then accused Obama-Biden officials for pressuring Israeli allies into accepting the ceasefire by withholding weapons necessary to defend themselves against Hezbollah, while also threatening to facilitate a binding international arms embargo through the U.N.
"Obama-Biden officials are already trying to use Israel's acceptance of this cease-fire to ensure that Hezbollah and other Iranian terrorist groups remain intact across Lebanon, and to limit Israel's future freedom of action and self-defense," Cruz claimed. "Administration officials, including Secretary of State Blinken, today even downplayed Israel's right under the cease-fire to strike terrorist groups in Lebanon when those groups pose imminent threats.
"These constraints have been rejected by our Israeli allies. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that under the cease-fire Israel retains full freedom of action to counter Hezbollah if the group attacks Israel or tries to rebuild its terrorist infrastructure," he added. "The United States should allow and assist Israel in doing so, and I am committed to working closely with the Trump administration and my colleagues in the incoming Congress to ensure they are able to do."
Fox News Digital’s Luis Casiano contributed to this report.
An effort by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., to block certain U.S. weapons sales to Israel was overwhelmingly rejected by the U.S. Senate Wednesday evening.
Sanders' joint resolution of disapproval, which was supported by Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md.; Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore.; and Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., intended to stop the White House's latest arms sales to the Israeli military. An effort to block the sales of tank rounds to Israel was voted down 79-18, and a measure intending to block mortar round shipments was rejected 78-19.
Speaking on the Senate floor, Sanders claimed the Israeli government is controlled "not only by right-wing extremists, but by religious zealots."
"It is time to tell the Netanyahu government that they cannot use U.S. taxpayer dollars and American weapons in violation of U.S. and international law and our moral values despite receiving $18 billion from U.S. taxpayers in the last year," Sanders said.
"And being the largest historical recipient of U.S. foreign aid, the Netanyahu government has completely ignored the repeated requests of President Biden and the U.S. government."
The 83-year-old politician also decried living conditions in Gaza during his speech.
"Right now, there is raw sewage running through the streets of Gaza, and it is very difficult for the people there to obtain clean drinking water," Sanders said. "Every one of Gaza's 12 universities has been bombed … as have many hundreds of schools. For 13 months, there has been no electricity in Gaza.
"As I have said many, many times, Israel had the absolute right to respond to that horrific Hamas attack as any other country would," Sanders concluded. "I don't think anybody here in the United States Senate disagrees with that. But Prime Minister Netanyahu's extremist government has not simply waged war against Hamas. It has waged an all-out war against the Palestinian people."
Despite the vote, Sanders' effort was not wholly unpopular. Earlier this week, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., signaled support for the Vermont Independent's proposal.
"The failure by the Biden administration to follow U.S. law and to suspend arms shipments is a grave mistake that undermines American credibility worldwide," Warren said in a statement to The Guardian.
"If this administration will not act, Congress must step up to enforce U.S. law and hold the Netanyahu government accountable through a joint resolution of disapproval."
Fox News Digital's Jessica Sonkin and Alec Schemmel contributed to this report.
A Syrian national was charged after allegedly funneling more than $9 million in U.S.-funded humanitarian aid to terrorist organizations — including al Qaeda.
According to a news release from the U.S. attorney's office, District of Columbia, 53-year-old Mahmoud Al Hafyan was charged in a 12-count indictment for allegedly diverting more than $9 million in U.S.-funded humanitarian aid intended for Syrian civilians to armed combatant groups.
The groups included the Al-Nusrah Front (ANF), which is a designated foreign terrorist organization affiliated with al Qaeda in Iraq, the release said.
"This defendant not only defrauded the U.S. government, but he also gave the humanitarian aid he stole to a foreign terrorist organization," U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves said. "While this foreign terrorist organization fought with the cruel al-Assad regime, the people who were supposed to receive the aid suffered."
According to the indictment, Al Hafyan had access to U.S.-funded humanitarian aid after positioning himself as the head of a non-governmental organization (NGO). Authorities said that he managed 160 NGO employees at the humanitarian station in Syria.
The U.S. Attorney's Office said that the NGO Alf Hafyan headed was awarded $122 million between January 2015 through November 2018. The agency noted that the money was intended to provide food and medical supplies in the war-torn country.
Along with at least two co-conspirators, Al Hafyan directed food kits valued at millions of dollars to commanders leading ANF. The designated foreign terrorist organization's primary objective was the overthrow of the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and has a long-documented history of conducting mass executions of civilians, suicide bombings and kidnappings.
To make it look like NGO was dispersing the kits to war-affected families in Syria, they allegedly inflated the amount of food kits received and falsified beneficiary logs, the agency said.
According to the affidavit, obtained by Fox News, Al Hafyan threatened the NGO's employees who refused to comply to follow his orders to defraud. Along with threatening noncompliant workers, Al Hafyan forced employees at the NGO to donate portions of their salaries to support the terrorist organization.
"Not only was Al Hafyan supporting violent terrorists, but he was stealing money from the U.S. government that was meant for humanitarian efforts. This public indictment is the culmination of years of work," said FBI Special Agent in Charge Sanjay Virmani of the Washington Field Office Counterterrorism Division.
Authorities said that the Syrian national sold the humanitarian kits on the black market to ANF commanders for this personal benefit.
"Al Hafyan and his coconspirators falsified beneficiary logs and inflated the number of food kits received by war-affected families in the Syrian villages of Bweiti, Lof, [and] Mazratt-Sh," the agency said.
