Welcome back to another edition of My Take 5, your weekly round-up of top international news. This week we are covering developments in Syria between Damascus and the Kurds, the signing of the India-EU FTA, Russia-Ukraine war negotiations, China’s purging of its top general, and EU’s recognition of Morocco’s position on the Moroccan Sahara. So, let’s get to it.
Syria focus: In significant developments in Syria over the past two weeks, the transition government of Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus launched offensives against Kurdish forces in that country’s north and east. The conflict began in Aleppo and then spread out, leading to Kurdish forces retreating from several towns. Importantly, many of these towns had Kurdish SDF run prison camps hosting former ISIS fighters. The US, which has been an ally of the Kurdish SDF, transported many of those fighters to Iraq. But a significant number of former ISIS fighters were also released by Damascus’s forces.
