BREAKING: US Envoy Tom Barrack:

The original purpose of the SDF as the primary anti-ISIS force on the ground has largely expired, as Damascus is now both willing and positioned to take over security responsibilities, including control of ISIS detention facilities and camps.

Canadian PM Mark Carney:

It seems that every day we are reminded that we live in an era of great power rivalry.

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US Envoy Tom Barrack:

The US has no interest in long-term military presence in Syria; it prioritizes defeating ISIS remnants, supporting reconciliation, and advancing national unity without endorsing separatism or federalism.

US Envoy Tom Barrack:

The post-Assad transition offers Syria’s Kurds their best opportunity yet: full integration into a unified Syrian state with citizenship, political participation, and cultural protections long denied under Assad.

The US-SDF partnership was always tactical, built to defeat ISIS when no viable central government existed. That mission has largely ended. Syria now has a recognized central government, has joined the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, and is prepared to assume security responsibilities.

The United States is facilitating this shift. A January 18 agreement outlines the integration of SDF fighters into the national military, transfer of key infrastructure and ISIS detention facilities to Damascus, and an end to parallel governance. Washington seeks stability, not separatism or a permanent military presence.

For the Kurds, integration offers more durable gains than wartime autonomy—citizenship, constitutional protections for language and culture, and a role in national governance. Despite risks, this US-backed process represents the strongest path to lasting Kurdish rights and security in Syria.

US Envoy Tom Barrack:

At the time, there was no functioning central Syrian state to partner with—the Assad regime was weakened, contested, and not a viable partner against ISIS due to its alliances with Iran and Russia.

Today, the situation has fundamentally changed. Syria now has an acknowledged central government that has joined the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS (as its 90th member in late 2025), signaling a westward pivot and cooperation with the US on counterterrorism.

US Envoy Tom Barrack:

Integration, backed by US diplomacy, represents the strongest chance yet for Kurds to secure enduring rights and security within a recognized Syrian nation-state.

US Envoy Tom Barrack:

In Syria, the United States is focused on: 1) ensuring the security of prison facilities holding ISIS prisoners, currently guarded by the SDF; and 2) facilitating talks between the SDF and the Syrian Government to allow for the peaceful integration of the SDF and the political inclusion of Syria’s Kurdish population into a historic full Syrian citizenship.

BREAKING: Syrian Army:

We announce a ceasefire in all operational sectors of the Syrian Arab Army, effective from 20:00 this evening, Tuesday, 20 January 2026.

This decision will remain in effect for four days from its date, in commitment to the understandings announced by the Syrian state with the SDF, and in pursuit of the success of the national efforts being made.

The Ministry of Defense affirms that it will remain the shield of the Syrian people in all their components, and that it will spare no effort in this path, in a manner that preserves the security and stability of the Syrian community in its entirety.

Canadian PM Mark Carney:

Great powers have begun using economic integration as weapons, tariffs as leverage, financial infrastructure as coercion, supply chains as vulnerabilities to be exploited.

You cannot live within the lie of mutual benefit through integration when integration becomes the source of your subordination.

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Canadian PM Mark Carney:

If great powers abandon even the pretense of rules and values for the unhindered pursuit of their power and interest, the gains from transactionalism will become harder to replicate.

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Canadian PM Mark Carney:

In the past few days, we have concluded new strategic partnerships with China and Qatar.

We are negotiating free trade pacts with India, ASEAN, Thailand, Philippines, and Mercosur.

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Carney: We stand firmly with Greenland and Denmark…

Audience applauds.

Trump will make a speech here tomorrow.

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Canadian PM Mark Carney:

Canada strongly opposes tariffs over Greenland.

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Canadian PM Mark Carney:

We know that the old order is not coming back. We shouldn’t mourn it.

Nostalgia is not a strategy. We believe from the fracture, we can build something better, stronger, more just.

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Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever:

I would like to confirm that they (US) are an ally, but then they have to behave like an ally.

Lukashenko has signed a document on Belarus’s accession to the “Board of Peace.”

Trump:

If I didn’t come along, there would be no NATO right now!!!

It would have been in the ash heap of History. Sad, but TRUE!!!

Several European countries are reconsidering their involvement in a U.S.-led coordination centre for Gaza, saying it has failed to boost humanitarian aid or shape post-war policy.

The Civil-Military Coordination Centre (CMCC), set up in southern Israel in October under Trump’s Gaza ceasefire plan, was meant to oversee the truce, facilitate aid and plan Gaza’s future.

But diplomats say progress has been minimal, with some European officials not returning after the holidays and privately calling the centre “directionless.”

Source: Reuters

Another “interesting” repost from Trump on Truth Social.

EU’s Kaja Kallas:

The Iranian authorities’ brutal repression is unacceptable.

The EU already has sweeping sanctions on Iran in place.

We are working on new sanctions.

Trump to NYP:

Oh, we did a good job with Syria. They had a prison break. European prisoners were breaking and I got it stopped. That was yesterday.

European terrorists were in prison. They had a prison break. And working with the government of Syria and the new leader of Syria, they captured all the prisoners, put them back to jail, and these were the worst terrorists in the world, all from Europe.