Donald Trump’s pick to oversee 18 intelligence agencies with a $100 billion spy budget is facing renewed scrutiny over an unannounced trip to Syria in 2017 where she met with the now-deposed dictator twice.
Syrian leader al-Sharaa reportedly also demands reparations as Moscow delegation seeks to secure strategic power bases.
Tulsi Gabbard, President Trump's nominee to serve as the director of national intelligence, will testify Thursday morning at a confirmation hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee. The 43-year-old former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii and combat veteran would oversee the nation's 18 spy agencies.
Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani will visit Damascus on Thursday, Qatar's Al Jazeera reported, as Syria's new interim government begins a political transition after Islamist rebels ousted the Assad regime last year.
Weeping, Fairuz Shalish grasps the red earth at an unmarked grave in Syria that she believes may hold her son, one of tens of thousands of people who vanished under ousted president Bashar al-Assad.Thousands poured out of the country's web of prisons in the final days of Assad's rule and after Islamist-led rebels toppled him on December 8.
Russia deployed troops to Syria in 2015 to support Assad regime's brutal crackdown against anti-government forces.
Al-Sharaa is not willing to continue cooperation with Moscow without 'concrete measures such as compensation, reconstruction, and recovery' after years of support for the Assad regime
Sharaa, who took the helm after Bashar al-Assad's ouster last month, has been appointed interim president and tasked with forming a transitional legislature, state media reported.Sharaa was appointed "as the country's president in the transitional phase",
Syria's de facto leader Ahmad al-Sharaa has asked Russia to hand over Bashar al-Assad, according to Reuters report. A high-level Russian delegation in Syria expressed support for the country's sovereignty and territorial integrity following the fall of Bashar al-Assad, Moscow's foreign ministry said Wednesday.
Syria’s new government pressed Russia for compensation during its first talks with a Kremlin delegation since the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad.
The summer home of ousted leader Bashar al-Assad was once off-limits to ordinary Syrians. Now people are lining up to visit and wandering around the rooms — which are empty after being looted.