Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at a reignited Syrian civil war, mass protests over Georgia’s suspended European Union accession bid, and U.S. export restrictions on China’s semiconductor industry.
Capturing Aleppo
A surprise rebel offensive captured the Syrian city of Aleppo on Saturday, renewing violent clashes in a more than decade-old civil war that many had largely believed to be at a stalemate. The jihadi Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) militia launched a multifront assault targeting Aleppo, the countryside around the city of Idlib, and Syria’s Hama province, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. As HTS militants pushed south toward the capital of Damascus on Monday, experts worried that revived conflict could ignite another battleground in the already tumultuous Middle East.
Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at a reignited Syrian civil war, mass protests over Georgia’s suspended European Union accession bid, and U.S. export restrictions on China’s semiconductor industry.
Capturing Aleppo
A surprise rebel offensive captured the Syrian city of Aleppo on Saturday, renewing violent clashes in a more than decade-old civil war that many had largely believed to be at a stalemate. The jihadi Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) militia launched a multifront assault targeting Aleppo, the countryside around the city of Idlib, and Syria’s Hama province, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. As HTS militants pushed south toward the capital of Damascus on Monday, experts worried that revived conflict could ignite another battleground in the already tumultuous Middle East.
HTS rebels have long controlled swaths of Syria’s northwest countryside. Formed in 2017, the group is a U.S.- and United Nations-designated terrorist organization that once held a formal alliance with al Qaeda, though it has since dissolved those ties. Early Saturday, the group challenged Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s grip on power by seizing Aleppo’s airport and military academy, among other key areas. The group’s leaders have said they have no plans for now to apply sharia (Islamic law) to the newly claimed territories.
Prior to the capture of Aleppo, Assad’s government forces controlled around 70 percent of Syria.
HTS’s latest advance appears to have woken up the Assad regime’s international backers to the possibility of renewed Western involvement in Syria’s civil war—a conflict that began in 2011, when Assad’s forces sought to violently repress a peaceful uprising.
The United States soon became involved, at first by providing nonlethal aid and intelligence support to the Free Syrian Army, a loose coalition of anti-government opposition groups, and later by training and equipping rebels directly. Then, in 2015, the Obama administration sent U.S. troops into Syria to counter the Islamic State, which had by that time grown into a major force in Syria and Iraq.
In the years since, the United States has conducted operations in Syria against an array of targets, including al Qaeda and the Islamic State as well as Assad’s forces and Iranian-linked groups. Turkey has also intervened to support anti-Assad forces. Meanwhile, Russia, Iran, and Iranian-backed militant groups, including Lebanon’s Hezbollah and various militias in Iraq, intervened to support Assad.
By 2020, largely due to the assistance of Russian airpower, Assad had turned the tide in the war and retaken much of the country, containing the rebels to a pocket in the country’s northwest. And with the Islamic State also effectively defeated a few years ago, the United States’ military presence in Syria has dwindled, with just 900 U.S. troops currently in the country.
Now, though, with Russia consumed by fighting its war against Ukraine as well as Hezbollah and Iran focused on fighting Israel in Lebanon and Gaza, Syria’s rebels are making a renewed attempt to challenge Assad. This was the first opposition attack on Aleppo since 2016, when government forces backed by Russian airstrikes forced rebel groups to surrender the city.
Aleppo is Syria’s second-largest city and has become a symbol for the brutality of the country’s 13-year civil war. More than 14 million Syrians have been forced to flee their homes since the conflict began, many of whom have come from Aleppo. As of last Friday, more than 500 people have been killed and another 45,000 have been internally displaced within and around the Aleppo governorate due to the renewed fighting.
The Syrian military has since tried to discredit reports about HTS advances. On Saturday, Damascus said that its operation to push back the rebels was “successfully” progressing and that it would soon begin a counterattack.
The Biden administration has “real concerns about the designs and objectives” of HTS, U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said on Sunday. “At the same time, of course, we don’t cry over the fact that the Assad government, backed by Russia, Iran, and Hezbollah, are facing certain kinds of pressure.”
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The World This Week
Tuesday, Dec. 3: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer hosts Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
NATO foreign ministers begin a two-day meeting in Brussels.
Wednesday, Dec. 4: France holds a vote of no confidence against the government of Prime Minister Michel Barnier.
Argentina hosts its first Conservative Political Action Conference.
U.S. President Joe Biden concludes his two-day trip to Angola.
Thursday, Dec. 5: Uruguay begins hosting leaders from the Mercosur group.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk hosts European Parliament President Roberta Metsola.
Friday, Dec. 6: Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te concludes his weeklong tour of Taipei’s Pacific allies.
Russian President Vladimir Putin visits Belarus.
Aruba holds a general election.
Saturday, Dec. 7: Ghana holds a general election.
The two-day Doha Forum kicks off in Qatar.
Sunday, Dec. 8: Romania holds a presidential election runoff.
What We’re Following
A precarious future. Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili appealed to the European Union on Monday to help her integrate Tbilisi into the bloc after the governing Georgian Dream party—which she is not a part of—suspended EU membership talks on Saturday. Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said Georgia would halt its accession bid for four years due to the European Parliament rejecting the country’s October election results, which gave Kobakhidze’s Georgian Dream nearly 54 percent of the vote.
Zourabichvili has framed the party’s decision as proof that a pro-Russian influence campaign has infiltrated her country. On Monday, she urged EU members not to recognize the results of the recent election, citing irregularities, and to instead call for a rerun. In response, Georgian Dream accused the EU of using possible accession to “blackmail” Georgia and “organize a revolution in the country.”
Mass protests have erupted across the country, calling for its return to membership talks. “By suspending Georgia’s EU accession process, Georgian Dream has rejected the opportunity for closer ties with Europe and made Georgia more vulnerable to the Kremlin,” the U.S. State Department said on Saturday in an announcement suspending its strategic partnership with Tbilisi.
Chip restrictions. The United States issued new export restrictions on China’s semiconductor industry on Monday. Some 140 major chip equipment and toolmaker companies were targeted, such as those involved in artificial intelligence training. The new rules seek to block shipments to China from places such as Singapore and Malaysia that send specialized equipment used to build cutting-edge chips.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said the White House’s decision aims to prevent Beijing from advancing domestic systems that support the modernization of its military. This is Washington’s third major crackdown in three years on China’s semiconductors, and it is likely the Biden administration’s last large-scale effort to curb Beijing’s development before President-elect Donald Trump assumes office in January.
Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in the United States, said the Chinese “firmly oppose” the measures and will “take resolute measures” to defend the companies.
Soccer stampede. A controversial referee call at a soccer game in Nzerekore, Guinea, on Sunday sparked a major stampede and crowd crush, killing at least 56 people, including children. Violence first broke out when fans angry with a disputed penalty began throwing stones at the field, prompting security forces to use tear gas. In an effort to escape, many attendees rushed the stadium’s exits, which a police source told Reuters led to the deadly situation.
A government investigation into the incident is underway. Guinean Prime Minister Amadou Oury Bah urged locals to remain calm in order to allow hospital services to treat the injured unimpeded. Former President Alpha Condé, who was ousted by a military coup in 2021, blamed domestic strains and poor governance for the crush. “In a context where the country is already marked by tensions and restrictions, this tragedy highlights the dangers of irresponsible organization,” he said.
Odds and Ends
Last week, a Chinese cryptocurrency entrepreneur purchased a piece of art for $6.2 million. On Friday, he ate that art. The conceptual work, displayed in New York City by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, consisted of a single banana duct-taped to a wall. “Eating it at a press conference can also become a part of the artwork’s history,” buyer Justin Sun said. According to the New York Times, the banana was originally purchased for just 35 cents.
