Headlines:

A ten-day ceasefire is now in effect in Lebanon.
The Treasury Department issued a fresh batch of sanctions targeting a network of people, companies, and ships involved in illicitly smuggling Iranian oil.
A group of U.S. senators sent a letter to acting Attorney General Todd Blanche asking him to explain why the Trump administration dropped a criminal case against Turkey’s Halkbank.
Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa, formerly known as Abu Mohammed Al-Jolani, met with a pair of Kurdish leaders yesterday to discuss the integration of the Syrian Democratic Forces — or SDF — into Syria’s state forces.
Word on the street is that there was meeting between the U.S. and Hamas in Cairo earlier this week.

FDD Executive Director Jon Schanzer provides timely situational updates and analysis, followed by a conversation with H.R. McMaster, former National Security Advisor to the President of the United States and chairman of FDD's Center on Military and Political Power.

Learn more at: https://www.fdd.org/fddmorningbrief

China's MidEast reckoning | feat. Gen. H.R. McMaster