James Jeffrey heads the Middle East program at the Wilson Center, a think tank in Washington. A former ambassador to Turkey (2008-2010), then Iraq (2010-2012), he was then appointed as the US special envoy for Syria and to the international coalition against the Islamic State (IS) organization, under the Trump administration.

First, you have the red lines. Chemical and biological weapons need to be protected or destroyed. Second, the US does not want its deployed forces east of the Euphrates or the Syrian Democratic Forces to be disrupted by the Turks going in again, or the Turkish allies, the Syrian National Army. We have an agreement from October 2019 that regulates that and we want that adhered to. And then, we want the Iranians to stay out. It's a shared goal with Israel. The new Lebanese deal is based on the idea of Hezbollah not reconstituting.

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