Daily News Brief

March 24, 2023

Top of the Agenda

U.S. forces struck Iran-backed groups in Syria yesterday (NYT) after an Iranian-made drone killed one U.S. contractor and wounded one other, the Department of Defense said. Five U.S. service members were also injured. The U.S. airstrikes killed eleven people (Al Jazeera), the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights, a monitoring group, said. Today, rockets were fired (CBS) at a U.S. base in northern Syria, but no casualties were immediately reported.

The United States has more than nine hundred troops and hundreds of contractors stationed in Syria to help prevent the resurgence of the self-declared Islamic State. While Iranian-backed militias have launched dozens of attacks at or near bases housing U.S. troops in the past year, U.S. casualties have been rare. U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said the U.S. actions were in response to Thursday’s drone strike as well as other recent attacks.

Analysis

“The U.S. has been trying to persuade its Middle East partners that its influence in the region isn’t dwindling even as the Pentagon has reduced the American military footprint so it can focus on the challenge from China,” the Wall Street Journal’s Michael R. Gordon writes.

“While the United States is the bigger player [in Syria], Iran is willing to risk far more to maintain its influence in Syria. That means backing risky attacks on U.S. troops in order to pressure an American withdrawal,” Defense Priorities’ Geoff LaMear writes in the National Interest. 

Pacific Rim

Pyongyang tested an undersea drone (Bloomberg) capable of creating a “radioactive tsunami,” North Korean state media said. South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol called Pyongyang’s actions “reckless” and “unprecedented” and vowed to counter the threat.

CFR’s Scott A. Snyder discusses how a new deal between the U.S. and South Korea could deter a North Korean nuclear threat.

China: Chinese authorities detained five staffers (FT) from U.S. due diligence firm Mintz Group and ordered it to end its operations in the country, the company said.

 South and Central Asia

The Indian Air Force said a “major delivery” from Moscow has been delayed (CNN, Reuters) due to the Ukraine war. Russia is India’s largest defense supplier.

Myanmar: Advocates for Rohingya refugees from Myanmar criticized the country’s plan (Al Jazeera) to repatriate only about one thousand Rohingya, saying it is a publicity move and that the country has a list of eight hundred thousand refugees who could be repatriated.

Middle East and North Africa

The new law limits the circumstances (CNN) in which a prime minister can be removed from office. Opposition lawmakers denounced the law as a means to protect Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is currently on trial for corruption.

Sub-Saharan Africa

President of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Félix Tshisekedi installed multiple new ministers (East African), including a former vice president who was jailed for eleven years for war crimes. The changes come amid rising insecurity and ahead of elections later this year.

Chad: The government announced that it nationalized all the assets and rights (Reuters) belonging to a subsidiary of U.S. energy company ExxonMobil. 

Europe

Across France, more than four hundred people were arrested (AFP) and over four hundred security force members were injured as protests against President Emmanuel Macron’s plans to raise the retirement age turned violent yesterday. 

Turkey: Parliament’s foreign affairs committee approved a bill (Kathimerini) backing Finland’s entrance into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The full legislature is expected to take up the bill before closing next month.

Americas

Some 240 business leaders are accompanying (Reuters) the delegation of Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on a visit to China that is scheduled to begin on Sunday. Lula delayed the start of the visit (AFP) by one day due to pneumonia.

For Foreign Affairs, Hussein Kalout and Feliciano Guimarães unpack Lula’s foreign policy.

U.S./Canada: The countries are set to announce a deal that will allow Canada to turn away asylum seekers that did not arrive at official border crossings, CBC reported. Canada will also create openings for fifteen thousand migrants from the Western Hemisphere to apply to enter the country legally.

This Backgrounder looks at Canada’s immigration policy.

United States

The Anti-Defamation League counted 3,697 antisemitic incidents last year (NYT), the most since it began keeping statistics in 1979 and a 36 percent increase from 2021.

Friday Editor’s Pick

Scientific American tells the story of Chien-Shiung Wu, a woman whose long-overlooked contributions to the field of quantum physics would help a future generation of researchers win a Nobel Prize.

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