U.S. diplomacy

Members of the the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence quizzed the former four-term Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii about her week-long, 2017 trip to Syria and Lebanon, as she seeks to become U.S. director of national intelligence. Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) asked Gabbard why she met with Syrian Grand Mufti Ahmad Badreddin Hassoun, who threatened the United States and Europe with suicide bombers in 2011 if they attacked Syria or Lebanon. Gabbard said she was unaware of the grand mufti’s threat until Heinrich asked her about it on Thursday. “I made it a point to meet with different religious leaders, both Muslim leaders as well as various Christian and Catholic leaders who were there in the region,” Gabbard testified. “I did that both in Syria and in Lebanon to hear from them about what their concerns or thoughts were with regard to the war that was being raged at the time.” (Read more at JNS)

U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) Forces conducted a precision airstrike in Northwest Syria targeting and killing Muhammad Salah al-Za’bir, a senior operative in the terrorist organization Hurras al-Din (HaD), an Al-Qaeda affiliate (Read more at Centcom).

The release includes U.S. and Israeli dual citizen Keith Siegel, 65, Yarden Bibas, 35, and Ofer Kalderon, 54. Kalderon also holds French citizenship. The three men were handed over Saturday morning to representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Gaza, who transferred them to Israeli troops for the drive across the border into Israel. Bibas and Kalderon were handed over in Khan Younis, in Gaza's south; Seigel in Gaza City in the enclave's north (Read more at NPR).

The unusually direct US intervention in Lebanon's sectarian politics appears aimed at capitalizing on shifts in the power balance in Lebanon and the wider Middle East. U.S. officials have passed on messages to Salam and to Lebanese President Joseph Aoun - who enjoyed U.S. support as army commander and was elected president in early January - that Hezbollah should not be included in the next cabinet (Read more at Daily Observer).

Trump on Saturday floated a plan to "clean out" Gaza, where Israel's war has killed tens of thousands and caused a humanitarian crisis, in comments that echoed long-standing Palestinian fears of being permanently driven from their homes. The suggestion by Trump was not mentioned in the U.S. State Department statement released on Tuesday after the call between Rubio and Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty (Read more at AOL).

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to become the first foreign leader to meet with President Donald Trump during his second term. “I look forward to discussing how we can bring peace to Israel and its neighbors, and efforts to counter our shared adversaries,” Trump wrote in a letter to Netanyahu (Read more at NBC News).