Mother Debra Tice says she has renewed faith in the U.S. government's efforts to locate her son, who has been missing for thirteen years.

The MED This Week newsletter provides informed insights on the most significant developments in the MENA region, bringing together unique opinions and reliable foresight on future scenarios. Today, we shed light on the inauguration of Trump’s presidency and its implications for the MENA region.

Trump’s statement gave a clear signal that United States under his leadership would return to the model of US-Israel relations in 2017-2020, during Donald Trump’s first term.

US officials have expressed concerns that Tice may have been killed in recent Israeli airstrikes or could have suffocated after Bashar al-Assad's forces cut off power to prisons in Damascus before he was overthrow in December by Syrian rebels.

The president-elect may want to withdraw U.S. troops from the area, but if he does, he’d put a victory he’s proud of at risk.

Petraeus, a former CIA director and decorated 4-star Army general, spoke at an event in Salt Lake City on Friday.

In an official statement posted to Telegram in English, Al-Sharaa said he was "confident" that Trump will be the leader to "bring peace to the Middle East ", which has undergone turmoil amid Syria's devastating civil war, Israel's war in Gaza, and subsequent regional spillover.

The mother of American journalist Austin Tice, who was taken captive during a reporting trip to Syria in August 2012, arrived in Damascus on Saturday to step up the search for her son and said she hopes she can take him home with her.

Former Trump chief strategist Steve Bannon said tech billionaires attendance at Trump's inauguration is a sign of their "official surrender" to Trump.

Failure to reach a ceasefire and longer-term political accord in the north-east could destabilise Syria. Read more at straitstimes.com.

Speaking in Damascus on Monday, January 20, she expressed hope that the incoming US administration, led by President Donald Trump, would take active steps to locate her son. "Today, January 20th, President Donald Trump will be sworn into office,

The United States has been sharing secret intelligence on threats from the Islamic State with the new government in Syria, which is itself run by leaders of a militant group long considered by Washington to be a terrorist organization, according to multiple current and former U.S. officials familiar with the exchanges.