Thomas Barrack, a billionaire friend of Donald Trump who chaired the former president’s inaugural fund, exits following a not guilty verdict at the Brooklyn Federal Courthouse in Brooklyn, New York, US, Nov. 4, 2022. Photo: REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

The United States will appoint President Donald Trump’s longtime adviser and current US ambassador to Turkey, Thomas Barrack, as a special envoy for Syria, a person with direct knowledge of the matter and a diplomat in Turkey said.

The decision follows Trump’s landmark announcement last week that US sanctions on Syria would be lifted. It also suggests US acknowledgement that Turkey has emerged with key regional influence on Damascus since Bashar al-Assad’s ouster by rebels in December, which ended 14 years of civil war.

Trump met with Syria‘s interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa in Saudi Arabia on May 14 and urged him to normalize ties with longtime foe Israel following his surprise sanctions announcement.

“There is no announcement at this time,” a US State Department spokesperson said when asked for comment about Barrack‘s Syria role.

Barrack, a private equity executive who has long advised Trump and chaired his inaugural presidential committee in 2016, is expected to continue as US envoy to Turkey, the sources said.

Speaking to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he was allowing Turkish embassy staff, including Barrack, to work with local officials in Syria to understand what aid they need.

“We want to help that government succeed, because the alternative is full-scale civil war and chaos, which would, of course, destabilize the entire region,” Rubio said.

A US-Turkish meeting focused on Syria was also held in Washington on Tuesday, which Barrack attended according to Turkey‘s foreign ministry, where sanctions relief and efforts to counter terrorism were discussed.

Removing US sanctions would clear the way for greater engagement by humanitarian organizations working in Syria, and ease foreign investment and trade as the country tries to rebuild.

Barrack has been busy since his arrival in Ankara earlier this month, dining with Turkey‘s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on his second evening in the capital, according to people familiar with the event.

He joined Rubio for several high-profile meetings last week, including one with Syrian Foreign Minister Assad al-Shibani in Antalya hosted by Fidan.

He and Rubio also met with Turkish and Ukrainian government ministers ahead of the latter’s talks with Russian officials, the first direct ceasefire discussions in three years between the warring sides.

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CU Boulder. Photo: Wiki Commons.

As the academic year ends, there continues to be a notable rise in anti-Israel and anti-Zionist propaganda, worsened by harmful protests by the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter at CU Boulder.

Despite being derecognized as a student group last semester, SJP’s negative impact persists, and they have ongoing influence across the campus. These student activists are not acting alone; they have support from a group with considerably more power: Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine (FSJP).

The FSJP website spreads overtly anti-Zionist propaganda and statements that harm Jews, which has observably provoked unrest on campus.

Meanwhile, SJP’s “activism” has consisted mainly of taking over public spaces, hosting known antisemites, and bullying and harassing Jewish students. Throughout that whole time, FSJP participants have used their position as faculty members to enable this behavior.

This is why FSJP poses a greater danger than the student groups. According to their Instagram, the CU chapter of FSJP started in May 2024; however, FSJP nationwide was founded after October 7, with a problematic mission statement. Their official website states, “FSJP supports campus groups of faculty and staff organizing for Palestinian liberation. It was established in solidarity with our students during the 2023-25  war on Palestinian communities – a U.S.-backed assault against a colonized, dispossessed, and oppressed population.”

This statement entirely dismisses the identity of the Jewish people and the State of Israel by using the outdated stereotype that Israel functions as a colonizer state, and ignores the true reason for the current war — the mass rape and murder of Jews by a popular Palestinian terrorist group and their supporters.

When the Ethnic Studies department decided to publish a statement in support of Palestinian liberation this past semester, continuing the trend of pro-Palestinian groups ignoring the atrocities on October 7, it became clear that the entire department had been taken over by these activists masquerading as professors.

While the statement was retracted following the university’s request, a revised version was issued that weakly expressed an opposition to antisemitism “in any form,” and continued to display justification toward the biggest source of antisemitism on the planet — the Palestinian anti-Israel movement.

And this neutered statement still failed to acknowledge the violence experienced by Israelis and Jewish people worldwide, or the mass protests that began just days after Hamas’ mass murder.

FSJP expresses no reservations regarding their past behavior, and has attempted to pressure the university to allow student groups free rein to break school policies with outrageous requests. Their only agenda seems to be aiding students intent on excluding the majority of Jewish voices.

Two of the most egregious demands are that the institution solely accommodate the Palestinian community’s support and safety, and divest entirely from Israel.

For readers unaware, “divesting from Israel” is a euphemism that has become particularly favored by anti-Israel groups like these; it is essentially a call for the university to discriminate against Israelis based on their nationality, and to take away resources and programs from students interested in learning from Israeli institutions.

The social media post that FSJP created with the list of six demands all have a similar underlying theme: the dismantlement of Jewish life on campus, and imposing a Palestinian lens on all education and discourse related to the conflict in the Middle East.

They also explicitly demand divestment not only from Israeli institutions, but also the two major Jewish institutions on campus, Hillel and Chabad, which they view as Israeli because of their ties to Israel and pro-Israel culture.

It is one thing for a student group to exercise their freedom of speech, even if it is hate speech. CU Boulder is a state school, and college is supposed to be a place where people learn about “activism.”

However, they crossed the line when faculty openly shared their political beliefs and forced them on students, and then supported groups that violate school policy. This is not activism — it is forced indoctrination and hate speech.

Compare FSJP and their “partners” in the Ethnic Studies department to the Jewish Studies department. When the campus situation started heating up, faculty from the Jewish Studies department issued an official statement articulating their position on the ongoing conflict, and explicitly refrained from endorsing any expressions of hatred towards either Israel or the Palestinians.

No student in higher education should ever be pressured to conform to, or feel threatened by, a professor’s political views — especially when those views implicitly endorse acts of terrorism against the student’s minority group.

The actions of FSJP not only threaten academic freedom and integrity, but they also actively insert and enable a toxic culture on campus that targets Jews.

Allowing this group to continue without any scrutiny is a disservice to our campus community, and a betrayal of the Jewish community.

Zoe Mardiks is a recent University of Colorado Boulder graduate, and current CAMERA on Campus fellow. 

The post CU Boulder Has a Problem with Radical, Pro-Palestinian Faculty Group first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks during a meeting in Tehran, Iran, May 20, 2025. Photo: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS

While rising US–Iran tensions over Tehran’s uranium enrichment jeopardize nuclear talks, three Iranian sources said on Tuesday that the clerical leadership lacks a clear fallback plan if efforts to resolve a decades-long dispute collapse.

With negotiations faltering over clashing red lines, Iran may turn to China and Russia as a “Plan B,” the sources said, but with Beijing’s trade war with Washington and Moscow distracted with its war in Ukraine, Tehran’s backup plan appears shaky.

“The plan B is to continue the strategy before the start of talks. Iran will avoid escalating tensions, it is ready to defend itself,” a senior Iranian official said.

“The strategy also includes strengthening ties with allies like Russia and China.”

On Tuesday, Iran‘s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei rejected US demands to halt uranium enrichment as “excessive and outrageous,” warning that the talks are unlikely to yield results.

After four rounds of talks aimed at curbing Iran‘s nuclear program in return for sanctions relief, multiple stumbling blocks remain. Tehran refuses to ship all of its highly enriched uranium stockpile abroad or engage in discussions over its ballistic missile program, two of the Iranian officials and a European diplomat said.

The lack of trust on both sides and President Donald Trump’s decision to pull out of a 2015 accord with world powers has also raised the importance for Iran of getting guarantees that Washington will not renege on a future accord.

Compounding Tehran’s challenges, Iran‘s clerical establishment is grappling with mounting crises – energy and water shortages, a plummeting currency, military losses among regional allies, and rising fears of an Israeli attack on its nuclear sites – all exacerbated by Trump’s hardline policies.

With Trump’s speedy revival of a “maximum pressure” campaign on Tehran since February, including tightened sanctions and military threats, the sources said, Iran‘s leadership “has no better option” than a new deal to avert economic chaos at home that could threaten its rule.

Nationwide protests over social repression and economic hardship in recent years, met with harsh crackdowns, have exposed the Islamic Republic’s vulnerability to public anger and triggered sets of Western human rights sanctions.

“Without lifting sanctions to enable free oil sales and access to funds, Iran’s economy cannot recover,” said the second official, who like others asked not to be identified due to sensitivity of matter.

Iran‘s foreign ministry was not immediately available for comment.

A THORNY PATH

Wendy Sherman, former US Undersecretary for Political Affairs who led the US negotiating team that reached the 2015 accord between Tehran and six world powers, said it was impossible to convince Tehran to “dismantle its nuclear program and give up their enrichment even though that would be ideal.”

“So that means they will come to an impasse, and that we will face the potential for war, which I don’t think, quite frankly, President Trump looks forward to because he has campaigned as a peace president,” she said.

Even if enrichment disputes narrow, lifting sanctions remains fraught. The US favors phasing out nuclear-related sanctions, while Tehran demands immediate removal of all restrictions.

Dozens of Iranian institutions vital to Iran‘s economy, including its central bank and national oil company, have been sanctioned since 2018 for “supporting terrorism or weapons proliferation.”

When asked about Iran‘s options if talks fail, Sherman said Tehran would likely “continue to circumvent sanctions and sell oil, largely to China, perhaps India and others”.”

China, Iran‘s primary oil buyer despite sanctions, has helped stave off economic collapse, but Trump’s intensified pressure on Chinese trade entities and tankers threatens these exports.

Analysts warn that China and Russia’s support has limits. China insists on steep discounts for Iranian oil and may push for lower prices as global oil demand weakens.

If talks collapse – a scenario both Tehran and Washington hope to avoid – neither Beijing nor Moscow can shield Iran from unilateral US and EU sanctions.

France, Britain, and Germany, though not part of the US–Iran talks, have warned they would reimpose UN sanctions if no deal emerged quickly.

Under the 2015 nuclear pact’s UN resolution, the E3 have until Oct. 18 to trigger the so-called “snapback mechanism” before the resolution expires.

According to diplomats and a document seen by Reuters, the E3 countries may do this by August if no substantial deal can be found by then.

Diplomats warn that getting a deal before then would mean, in the best-case scenario, an initial political framework like in 2013 whereby both sides offer some immediate concrete concessions giving time for a more detailed negotiation.

“There is no reason to think it will take less time than the 18 months in 2013 especially when the parameters and the geopolitical situation is more complicated now,” a senior European official said.

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