00:00Right. And I mean, another sign of just how different the world is from 12 months ago when Bashar al-Assad was still in power.
00:08I mean, there are reports that the United States is planning to establish some sort of a military presence in Syria.
00:12It could be an air base close to Damascus. I don't know if you've heard those reports, but if confirmed, I mean, what an extraordinary development.
00:20That's right. And, you know, the U.S. has has maintained a presence and has had a presence in Syria throughout the years to part as part of its work towards the countering ISIS or defeat ISIS coalition.
00:35The U.S. has always had an interest. This is back from when I used to work in government of trying to counter that ISIS threat, which is still very much present.
00:45But now we're seeing the the government of the United States actually for the first time participating and cooperating with the central government in Damascus, as opposed to what it was doing before, which was sort of working around the central government.
01:02And so it's a huge step forward in terms of the level of cooperation between the two countries.
01:09I mean, Tom, I know you've seen this, too. This is going back to President Trump's first meeting with Ahmad al-Shara, with the president of Syria in Saudi Arabia, where he really seems to have taken a personal interest and a personal liking to the Syrian president and is influenced very much by leaders like Crown Prince MBS in Saudi Arabia and President Erdogan in Turkey,
01:33who are all letting Donald Trump know that the key to a stable and secure region really is Syria and and it looks like he's listening to them.
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