Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was subpoenaed to appear before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday, but she’s expected to ignore the order, potentially risking criminal charges.

Hillary Clinton is scheduled to be deposed behind closed doors at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, and it appears the GOP-led committee will move forward with holding the interview in some form regardless of whether she attends.

Hillary and Bill Clinton’s lawyers sent a letter to House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., earlier this week, calling their subpoenas ‘invalid and legally unenforceable.’

But Comer previously threatened to initiate contempt of Congress proceedings against both Clintons if they skipped their January deposition dates, which were rescheduled twice prior, amid conversations with their attorneys.

Bill Clinton defied his own subpoena on Tuesday, failing to appear for a 10 a.m. closed-door deposition. 

Comer told reporters afterward that the House Oversight Committee would meet next week to advance a contempt resolution against the former president in response.

When Fox News Digital asked if the same would happen to Hillary Clinton if she failed to appear the next day, Comer said, ‘We’ll see. We’ll talk about it.’

The former first couple were two of 10 people subpoenaed by Comer as part of the panel’s investigation into Jeffrey Epstein. The subpoenas were issued following a bipartisan vote by an Oversight subcommittee panel during an unrelated hearing on illegal immigration.

Despite that, however, no Democrats appeared for Bill Clinton’s expected grilling.

‘Not a single Democrat showed up today, not a single Democrat,’ Comer told reporters. ‘It just seems like they only care about pushing Republicans. And we’ve had a former Trump Cabinet secretary, Alex Acosta, in for a grilling. We had Bill Barr, former attorney general, in for a grilling. But for whatever reason, President Clinton didn’t show up. And the Democrats on the committee don’t seem to have a problem.’

The Clintons’ attorneys criticized Comer’s leadership of the investigation in their letter, discounting the subpoenas.

‘President and Secretary Clinton have already provided the limited information they possess about Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell to the Committee,’ the lawyers said.

‘Your continued insistence that the former President and Secretary of State can be compelled to appear before the Committee under these circumstances, however, brings us toward a protracted and unnecessary legal confrontation that distracts from the principal work of the Congress with respect to this matter, which, if conducted sincerely, could help ensure the victims of Mr. Epstein and Ms. Maxwell are afforded some measure of justice for the crimes perpetrated against them, however late. But perhaps distraction is the point.’

Comer said after Bill Clinton skipped his deposition, ‘No one’s accusing Bill Clinton of any wrongdoing. We just have questions. And that’s why the Democrats voted, along with Republicans, to subpoena Bill Clinton.’

The House Oversight Committee would need to advance a contempt resolution before it’s considered by the entire chamber. If a simple majority votes to hold someone in contempt of Congress, a criminal referral is then traditionally made to the Department of Justice.

A criminal contempt of Congress charge is a misdemeanor that carries a punishment of up to one year in jail and a maximum $100,000 fine, if convicted.

President Donald Trump is setting the stage for the U.S. to be involved in overseeing Venezuela for a significant period of time, after conducting strikes and capturing dictator Nicolás Maduro and labeling himself ‘acting’ president of Venezuela. 

The move marks his boldest interventionist move yet — a foreign policy approach by which one country intervenes in another state’s affairs — and follows other major military operations from the Trump administration, including strikes in Syria in December 2025 against Islamic State operatives after an ambush against U.S. troops there, and strikes in June 2025 against the Iranian nuclear sites of Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan.

Trump told The New York Times in an interview that was published Wednesday that ‘only time will tell’ how long the U.S. will be running Venezuela, but said it would be ‘much longer’ than a year. 

Additionally, Trump announced recently that Venezuela’s interim government would hand over up to 50 million barrels of oil to the U.S. and that the oil would be sold ‘immediately.’

‘We will rebuild it in a very profitable way,’ Trump told the Times. ‘We’re going to be using oil, and we’re going to be taking oil. We’re getting oil prices down, and we’re going to be giving money to Venezuela, which they desperately need.’

Likewise, Trump shared a doctored image that looked like a Wikipedia page that identified him as ‘Acting President of Venezuela’ since January 2026. 

Previous interventionist actions the U.S. has taken include launching an invasion of Afghanistan in response to the 9/11 attacks Afghanistan-based al-Qaeda conducted against the U.S., and an invasion of Iraq in 2003 that led to the toppling of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s regime. In both cases, the U.S. remained in prolonged occupations there. 

The language the Trump administration is using now focusing on illegal migration is different than what was used during the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts, which focused on democracy-building and promoting freedom, Katherine Thompson, a senior fellow in defense and foreign policy studies at the libertarian think tank the Cato Institute, told Fox News Digital. 

‘But the pathway to achieve those things, I don’t see, like, a broad differentiation from the things that we did before,’ Thompson told Fox News Digital. 

Thompson said that she doesn’t see how the Trump administration’s goals could be completed without small rotational deployments from U.S. forces to provide security, particularly in the event that the U.S. reopens its Embassy in Caracas, Venezuela. 

‘I don’t see how we’re going to have a team there without at least some small deployment of rotational forces to achieve security of our own personnel,’ Thompson said.

So far, no U.S. troops are on the ground in Venezuela, and the Senate advanced a War Powers resolution Thursday that, if passed, would bar using U.S. forces within or against Venezuela without Congress’ approval. 

When asked by Fox News Digital about whether Trump’s ‘Acting President of Venezuela’ post was shared jokingly and what it indicates about how long the U.S. will be involved in running Venezuela, White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly told Fox News Digital: ‘President Trump will be the greatest President for the American and Venezuelan people in history. Congratulations, world!’

Although Trump has blasted previous administrations for actions in the Middle East and vowed he would bring an end to ‘endless wars’ while ushering in an ‘America First’ agenda prioritizing U.S. interests, Democrats warned that the U.S. may be involving itself in another complicated conflict. 

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., claimed that the U.S. is on the path to another ‘endless war.’

‘The very thing that Donald Trump campaigned against over and over and over again was no more endless wars,’ Schumer said in an interview with ABC News Jan. 4. ‘And, right now, we’re headed right into one with no barriers, with no discussion.’ 

Trump announced on Jan. 3 that U.S. special forces conducted a ‘large-scale strike’ against Caracas, and seized Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. Both were taken to New York and appeared in a Manhattan federal court Jan. 5 on drug charges, where they each pleaded not guilty.

The raid came after months of pressure on Venezuela and more than two dozen strikes in Latin American waters against alleged drug traffickers as part of Trump’s effort to crack down on the influx of drugs into the U.S.

The Trump administration routinely stated that it did not recognize Maduro as a legitimate head of state and said he was the leader of a drug cartel. Likewise, Trump said in December 2025 he believed it would be ‘smart’ for Maduro to step down. 

The Trump administration has justified seizing Maduro as a ‘law enforcement’ operation, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio said congressional approval wasn’t necessary since the operation didn’t amount to an ‘invasion.’

However, lawmakers primarily on the left have questioned the legality of the operation in Venezuela, which was conducted without Congress’ approval.

‘This has been a profound constitutional failure,’ the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., said in a statement Jan. 3. ‘Congress — not the President — has the sole power to authorize war. Pursuing regime change without the consent of the American people is a reckless overreach and an abuse of power.’

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., accused his ‘pro-life’ Republican colleagues of not caring about the people killed in boat strikes near Venezuela who the Trump administration, without providing evidence, claims were trafficking fentanyl.

During an appearance on ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’ released on Tuesday, Paul said GOP lawmakers ‘don’t give a s‑‑-‘ about the people who died on the vessels, blasting his colleagues for not granting the presumption of innocence.

‘I look at my colleagues who say they’re pro-life, and they value God’s inspiration in life, but they don’t give a s‑‑- about these people in the boats,’ Paul said. ‘Are they terrible people in the boats? I don’t know. They’re probably poor people in Venezuela and Colombia.’

‘I guess what I don’t feel connected to my Republican colleagues is that those lives don’t matter at all, and we just blow them up. And against all justice, and against all laws of war, all laws of just war, we have never blown up people who were shipwrecked,’ he added, referring to the administration’s reported targeting and killing of survivors of initial strikes who were clinging to wreckage.

The liberty-minded Republican said it is ‘against the military code of justice to do that.’

‘We’re doing it and everybody just says, ‘Oh, well, they’re drug dealers,” he said.

Paul criticized his fellow GOP lawmakers who have repeated the administration’s claims about the boats carrying fentanyl. He also took issue with colleagues who hold the position of, ‘Well, we’re at war with them. They’re committing war by bringing drugs into America.’

‘They’re not even coming here,’ Paul explained. ‘They’re going to these islands in the south part of the Caribbean. The cocaine — and it’s not fentanyl at all — the cocaine’s going to Europe.’

He emphasized that ‘those little boats can’t get here.’

‘No one’s even asked this common question: Those boats have these four engines on them. They’re outboard boats. You can probably go about 100 miles before you have to refuel. Two thousand miles from us, they’d have to refuel 20 times to get here,’ Paul said.

The senator accused the administration of conducting the boat strikes to create ‘a pretense and a false argument’ ahead of the operation to attack Venezuela and arrest its president, Nicolás Maduro.

‘It’s all been a pretense for arresting Maduro,’ he said. ‘So, we have to set up the predicate. We got to show you we care about drugs.’

Paul helped the Senate advance a resolution last week that would limit Trump’s ability to conduct further attacks against Venezuela after the U.S. military’s recent move to strike the country and capture Maduro, which the Kentucky Republican said amounts to war. The Upper Chamber could pass the measure later this week, although it faces an uphill battle in the House despite some support from Republicans.

‘I think bombing a capital and removing the head of state is, by all definitions, war,’ Paul told reporters before the procedural vote last week. ‘Does this mean we have carte blanche that the president can make the decision any time, anywhere, to invade a foreign country and remove people that we’ve accused of a crime?’

The lawmaker has repeatedly criticized the administration’s boat strikes on alleged narco-terrorists in recent months, often raising concerns about killing people without due process and the possibility of killing innocent people. The senator previously cited Coast Guard statistics that show a significant percentage of boats boarded on suspicion of drug trafficking are innocent.

Paul said on ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’ that he believes the administration might attack Mexico next, which Trump has signaled could be a future target.

‘They want to do that next. They want to bomb Mexico,’ Paul said.

Trump has said cartels are ‘running Mexico’ and that ‘something’s going to have to be done’ because Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum is ‘very frightened’ of the cartels.

A South Korean court heard arguments Tuesday seeking the death penalty for former President Yoon Suk Yeol, as prosecutors accused the ousted leader of orchestrating a rebellion through his controversial martial law declaration in December 2024.

Independent counsel Cho Eun-suk asked the Seoul Central District Court to impose the sentence, arguing that Yoon’s actions amounted to ‘anti-state activities’ and describing the decree as a ‘self-coup.’

Yoon, a conservative who was removed from office last spring, remains in custody while facing multiple criminal proceedings tied to the martial law episode and other controversies from his presidency. Prosecutors say the rebellion charge carries the most severe potential punishment.

Cho’s team argued in court that Yoon sought to prolong his hold on power by undermining South Korea’s constitutional system of governance.

Yoon has rejected the accusations, telling the court that the investigations into his conduct have been ‘frenzied’ and marked by ‘manipulation’ and ‘distortion.’

He has maintained that the declaration of martial law was intended to alert the public to what he viewed as the growing threat posed by the opposition Democratic Party, which used its legislative majority to block his political agenda. 

Yoon argued that the exercise of presidential emergency powers cannot be treated as rebellion under the law.

The court is expected to deliver a verdict next month. Legal experts have said a life sentence is more likely than execution, noting that South Korea has not carried out a death penalty since 1997.

Yoon is the first South Korean president who has faced a potential death penalty after leaving office since Chun Doo-hwan was sentenced to death in 1996 for various crimes. Chun’s death sentence was later commuted to life in prison, and he was subsequently pardoned and freed.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The interim government in Venezuela has released at least four U.S. citizens who were imprisoned under President Nicolás Maduro’s regime, Fox News confirmed.

The release marks the first known release of Americans in the South American country since the U.S. military completed an operation to capture authoritarian Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who is now facing federal drug trafficking charges in New York.

‘We welcome the release of detained Americans in Venezuela,’ a State Department official said Tuesday. ‘This is an important step in the right direction by the interim authorities.’

The release of American citizens was first reported by Bloomberg.

President Donald Trump said Saturday that Venezuela had begun releasing political prisoners.

‘Venezuela has started the process, in a BIG WAY, of releasing their political prisoners,’ Trump wrote on Truth Social. ‘Thank you! I hope those prisoners will remember how lucky they got that the USA came along and did what had to be done.’

Venezuela’s interim government has reported that 116 prisoners have been released, although only about 70 have been verified by the non-governmental organization Justicia, Encuentro y Perdón, according to Bloomberg.

National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez said prisoner releases would continue, according to the outlet.

The U.S. government issued a new security alert Saturday urging Americans in Venezuela to leave the country immediately, citing security concerns and limited ability to provide emergency assistance, the U.S. Embassy in Caracas said.

‘U.S. citizens in Venezuela should leave the country immediately,’ the embassy said in the alert.

The warning pointed to reports of armed groups operating on Venezuelan roads.

Following the military operation, Trump suggested that the U.S. would ‘run’ Venezuela for an extended period.

‘We’re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition,’ he said.

Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., suggested Tuesday that Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell should resign to avoid a potential indictment, arguing the move could prompt the Department of Justice (DOJ) to drop its investigation.

The suggestion comes after the DOJ announced Sunday it has opened a criminal probe into Powell focused on the renovation of the central bank’s Washington headquarters and whether he was truthful in his congressional testimony regarding the project.

‘If you’re the attorney for Jay Powell and you want to avoid an indictment, how about you go to Jeanine Pirro and say, ‘I’ll make a deal. I’ll step down today if you’ll drop the investigation today,” Cramer said on FOX Business’ ‘Kudlow.’

Cramer added that his proposed legal strategy would be ‘a win-win for everybody.’

U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro said on X Monday that her office had contacted the Fed ‘on multiple occasions to discuss cost overruns and the chairman’s congressional testimony, but were ignored, necessitating the use of legal process — which is not a threat.’

‘The word ‘indictment’ has come out of Mr. Powell’s mouth, no one else’s,’ Pirro continued. ‘None of this would have happened if they had just responded to our outreach. This office makes decisions based on the merits, nothing more and nothing less. We agree with the chairman of the Federal Reserve that no one is above the law, and that is why we expect his full cooperation.’

Powell provided testimony before the Senate Banking Committee last year regarding a significant renovation to two main office buildings in the Fed’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. The project is expected to cost $2.5 billion and is being paid for by the central bank, not taxpayers.

Powell confirmed in a video statement Sunday that the Federal Reserve had been served ‘with grand jury subpoenas’ that threatened ‘a criminal indictment.’

While Powell said he respected the rule of law and congressional oversight, he asserted that the Justice Department’s move was ‘unprecedented’ and politically motivated.

‘This new threat is not about my testimony last June or about the renovation of the Federal Reserve buildings,’ he said. He added that the threat of criminal charges is a ‘consequence of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of the president.’

A spokesperson for the Fed told Fox News Digital the Fed would not have any comment beyond Powell’s video message from Sunday.

Cramer cautioned on ‘Kudlow’ that an indictment could negatively impact the economy.

‘I don’t want to do anything to disrupt this incredible rocket ship economy we’re enjoying right now,’ he said. ‘We’ve got other big things to do that I’d rather focus on than an indictment.’

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Fox News Digital’s Amanda Macias contributed to this report.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., accused his ‘pro-life’ Republican colleagues of not caring about the people killed in boat strikes near Venezuela who the Trump administration, without providing evidence, claims were trafficking fentanyl.

During an appearance on ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’ released on Tuesday. Paul said GOP lawmakers ‘don’t give a s‑‑-‘ about the people who died on the vessels, blasting his colleagues for not granting the presumption of innocence.

‘I look at my colleagues who say they’re pro-life, and they value God’s inspiration in life, but they don’t give a s‑‑- about these people in the boats,’ Paul said. ‘Are they terrible people in the boats? I don’t know. They’re probably poor people in Venezuela and Colombia.’

‘I guess what I don’t feel connected to my Republican colleagues is that those lives don’t matter at all, and we just blow them up. And against all justice, and against all laws of war, all laws of just war, we have never blown up people who were shipwrecked,’ he added, referring to the administration’s reported targeting and killing of survivors of initial strikes who were clinging to wreckage.

The liberty-minded Republican said it is ‘against the military code of justice to do that.’

‘We’re doing it and everybody just says, ‘Oh, well, they’re drug dealers,” he said.

Paul criticized his fellow GOP lawmakers who have repeated the administration’s claims about the boats carrying fentanyl. He also took issue with colleagues who hold the position of, ‘Well, we’re at war with them. They’re committing war by bringing drugs into America.’

‘They’re not even coming here,’ Paul explained. ‘They’re going to these islands in the south part of the Caribbean. The cocaine — and it’s not fentanyl at all — the cocaine’s going to Europe.’

He emphasized that ‘those little boats can’t get here.’

‘No one’s even asked this common question: Those boats have these four engines on them. They’re outboard boats. You can probably go about 100 miles before you have to refuel. Two thousand miles from us, they’d have to refuel 20 times to get here,’ Paul said.

The senator accused the administration of conducting the boat strikes to create ‘a pretense and a false argument’ ahead of the operation to attack Venezuela and arrest its president, Nicolás Maduro.

‘It’s all been a pretense for arresting Maduro,’ he said. ‘So, we have to set up the predicate. We got to show you we care about drugs.’

Paul helped the Senate advance a resolution last week that would limit Trump’s ability to conduct further attacks against Venezuela after the U.S. military’s recent move to strike the country and capture Maduro, which the Kentucky Republican said amounts to war. The Upper Chamber could pass the measure later this week, although it faces an uphill battle in the House despite some support from Republicans.

‘I think bombing a capital and removing the head of state is, by all definitions, war,’ Paul told reporters before the procedural vote last week. ‘Does this mean we have carte blanche that the president can make the decision any time, anywhere, to invade a foreign country and remove people that we’ve accused of a crime?’

The lawmaker has repeatedly criticized the administration’s boat strikes on alleged narco-terrorists in recent months, often raising concerns about killing people without due process and the possibility of killing innocent people. The senator previously cited Coast Guard statistics that show a significant percentage of boats boarded on suspicion of drug trafficking are innocent.

Paul said on ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’ that he believes the administration might attack Mexico next, which Trump has signaled could be a future target.

‘They want to do that next. They want to bomb Mexico,’ Paul said.

Trump has said cartels are ‘running Mexico’ and that ‘something’s going to have to be done’ because Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum is ‘very frightened’ of the cartels.

Recently unredacted construction plans for China’s new super embassy in London have ignited a storm of national security concerns across the United Kingdom, as blueprints reveal a hidden underground room positioned alarmingly close to some of Britain’s most sensitive communication cables.

Major critics of the proposed site, which will run as close as three feet to the internet infrastructure, warned that the secret room could serve as a hub for Chinese espionage. While the British government reportedly assured its allies that the lines do not carry sensitive government data, the cables transmit financial transactions as well as communication traffic for millions of internet users.  

The blueprints were publicly unredacted Monday by The Telegraph, just one week before Prime Minister Keir Starmer is widely expected to approve the plans before his visit to see President Xi Jinping in China.  

A government spokesman told the outlet that despite the security concerns, ‘national security is our first duty and government security experts have been involved throughout the process so far.’

According to the blueprint, the facility will be located at the former Royal Mint and will become Europe’s largest Chinese embassy. 

Construction plans indicate that China intends to demolish and rebuild a basement wall, placing officials and equipment just over three feet from critical fiber-optic cables. Security experts have warned that such proximity could create opportunities for ‘cable-tapping,’ which involves inserting wiretaps or reading light signals leaking from the lines.

Professor Alan Woodward, a security expert at the University of Surrey, highlighted the technical feasibility of espionage given the physical layout, The Telegraph reported. He described the demolition as a ‘red flag’ and noted, ‘If I were in their shoes, having those cables on my doorstep would be an enormous temptation.’

Additionally, the concealed chamber appears to be equipped with at least two hot-air extraction systems designed to ventilate heat-generating equipment. Experts reportedly inferred that this infrastructure suggests that the room is designed to accommodate high-powered technology such as advanced computers typically used for espionage and data processing. 

Beyond the single chamber near the cables, the unredacted plans also revealed a network of 208 secret rooms beneath the diplomatic site. The basement appears to allow for emergency backup generators, sprinkler systems, communications cabling and showers, suggesting that officials could remain underground for extended periods, potentially to operate or monitor equipment.

The construction plans have generally raised fears that the London complex could serve as a Beijing intelligence hub. According to U.K. outlet The Times, Britain has been pressured to reassure the United States and other intelligence partners that the cables do not transmit any sensitive government data.

Alicia Kearns, the shadow national security minister and prominent critic of the project, described the approval of the embassy as handing Beijing a strategic advantage against British interests.  

‘Giving China the go-ahead for its embassy site would be to gift them a launchpad for economic warfare at the very heart of the central nervous system of our critical financial national infrastructure,’ she said in a post on X.  

A 23-year-old student was shot in the head at close range during protests in Iran, according to Iran Human Rights, a Norway-based group, as the regime continues its violent crackdown on nationwide demonstrations.

Rubina Aminian, a student of textile and fashion design at Shariati Technical and Vocational College for Girls in Tehran, was killed Jan. 8 after leaving college and joining the protests in the capital, according to Iran Human Rights.

She is among the few victims of the recent unrest whose identity has been publicly confirmed.

‘Sources close to Rubina’s family, citing eyewitnesses, told Iran Human Rights that the young Kurdish woman from Marivan was shot from close range from behind, with the bullet striking her head,’ the group said in a statement.

Following her death, Aminian’s family traveled from their home in Kermanshah, western Iran, to Tehran to identify her body.

According to sources cited by Iran Human Rights, the family was taken to a location near the college where they saw the bodies of hundreds of young people allegedly killed during the protests.

‘Most of the victims were young people between 18 and 22 years old, who had been shot at close range in the head and neck by government forces,’ a source close to the family said.

The family was reportedly initially barred from identifying Aminian’s body and later prevented from taking her remains, the group said.

After extensive efforts, relatives were eventually allowed to retrieve her body and return to Kermanshah.

When they got there, intelligence forces reportedly surrounded the family home and would not allow a burial to take place.

According to Iran Human Rights, the family was forced to bury Aminian’s body along the roadside between Kermanshah and the nearby city of Kamyaran.

The family has also not been permitted to hold mourning ceremonies, and several mosques in Marivan were reportedly disallowed from hosting memorial services.

Iran’s spiraling anti-government protests have been driven by widespread anger over political repression and economic hardship, including rising inflation.

The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency estimated Tuesday that over 16,700 people have been detained.

Other rights groups have reported extremely high death tolls, with some estimates exceeding 3,000, according to Fox News chief foreign correspondent Trey Yingst.

Iran Human Rights described Aminian in a statement as ‘a young woman full of joy for life and passionate about fashion and clothing design, whose dreams were buried by the violent repression of the Islamic Republic.’

The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee pressed the Syrian government to hold perpetrators accountable amid accusations of grave human rights violations within Syria’s army during the seizure of two Kurdish neighborhoods in Aleppo. Some reports claim jihadist-aligned members of the army were responsible for the abuses. 

Jim Risch, R-Idaho., wrote on Tuesday on X that ‘I am gravely concerned about the conduct of armed forces in Aleppo, Syria, over the past week and urge the government to hold accountable those who committed these egregious acts. After years of war, the role of Syria’s new government and armed forces is to safeguard the inherent rights of its citizens, not to infringe upon them.’

Risch responded to an X Post from the Syrian Network condemning the desecration of a woman’s body in Aleppo, where it was thrown from a high floor by a member of the Syrian Army.

On Tuesday, Adm. Brad Cooper, the commander of CENTCOM, appealed ‘to all parties to exercise maximum restraint’ in the Aleppo area. 

After days of intense clashes, Syrian army forces controlled by the former U.S. designated terrorist Ahmed al-Sharaa, who was previously a member of the terrorist movements al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, seized two neighborhoods (Sheikh Maqsood and Ashrafiyeh) on Sunday in the city of Aleppo, where members of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF were based.

The SDF played a critical role in aiding U.S. forces to defeat the Islamic State in Syria.

Mazloum Abdi, the leader of the SDF, wrote on X that an agreement via international mediation had cemented the evacuation of Syrian Kurds from the two districts in Aleppo.

Abdi wrote that, ‘With mediation by international parties to halt the attacks and violations against our people in Aleppo, we have reached an understanding that leads to a ceasefire and ensures the evacuation of the martyrs, wounded, stranded civilians and fighters from the Ashrafiyeh and Sheikh Maqsood neighborhoods [in northern Aleppo] to North and East Syria [Rojava],’ according to the Kurdish news organization Rudaw. 

The U.S. Ambassador to Turkey, Tom Barrack, who also serves as the Special Envoy for Syria, wrote on X on Saturday after the Aleppo ceasefire agreement was apparently reached, that he met with President ‘al-Sharaa, Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani, and members of their team in Damascus to discuss recent developments in Aleppo and the broader path forward for Syria’s historic transition.’

He added, ‘The Syrian government has reaffirmed its commitment to the March 2025 integration agreement with the SDF, which provides a framework for incorporating SDF forces into national institutions in a manner that preserves Kurdish rights and strengthens Syria’s unity and sovereignty.’

Wladimir van Wilgenburg, a Kurdish studies expert, told Fox News Digital prior to the Syrian army ousting SDF from Aleppo districts that, ‘Kurds suspect that Turkey is pushing Damascus to push out Kurdish forces from Aleppo to give a major blow to the SDF, so that they will make more concessions to Damascus and make the Kurdish negotiation position weaker. 

‘Ankara wants the SDF to integrate into the Syrian army on an individual basis, not as separate divisions,’ van Wilgenburg said. He added, ‘Moreover, the SDF wants a decentralized system, while Damascus wants a centralized system. The Kurds have decided to make a stand in Aleppo. The current situation could spark a widespread conflict that could undermine Trump’s policy of creating sustainable peace in the Middle East.’

The Aleppo health directorate said at least 24 civilians were killed and more than 120 people were injured during five days of clashes.

The government of Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan views the Syrian Kurds as a threat to Turkey because many Kurdish organizations across the region seek an independent state that would include a part of Turkey, where there is a large Kurdish population. Erdogan has over the years launched devastating attacks on the Kurds in northern Syrian.

Retired four-star Army general Jack Keane previously told Fox News’ Mark Levin on ‘Life, Liberty & Levin’ that President Trump during his first term was able to stop Erdogan’s attacks on the Syrian Kurds. 

The General Command of the SDF issued a statement last week, stating ‘We warn that the continuation of this aggression against civilians will lead to serious repercussions that will not be limited to Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh or to the city of Aleppo alone, but will risk plunging all of Syria back into an open battlefield. Full responsibility for this will rest with those who persist in choosing the use of force against civilians.’

Al-Sharaa‘s rule over the past year has seen radical Islamist forces aligned with his army engage in massacres of a range of Syrian minority groups, from Alawites to the Druze. Radical Islamists have also murdered Syrian Christians.

Sinam Mohamad, the representative of the Syrian Democratic Council to the U.S., told Fox News Digital that a ‘decentralized system will save Syria from any or conflict in the future.’ She said ‘We regret foreign influence’ in Syria, noting that ‘Turkey still has influence on Damascus.’ She said that Turkey seeks to ‘provoke’ in Syria, citing the recent attacks in Aleppo.

Mohammad said the Syrian Kurds have a ‘negotiating committee to discuss the autonomous government in northeastern Syria. We also have women units in the SDF who have been fighting against ISIS.’ She asked what is the ‘future of women in the army’ in Syria?  ‘Damascus does not want women units in the army. In Israel, they have women in the army.’

She said this part of the negotiations with al-Sharaa’s government with respect to the March 2025 agreement reached between the SDF and the Syrian regime.

Van Wilgenburg said, ‘The clashes began after the latest negotiations between the Kurds and Damascus over the implementation of the March 10 agreement did not produce any results. Damascus earlier verbally agreed on three SDF divisions, but there were remaining discussions and different view points over command and control. The last meeting took place on Jan. 4 in Damascus.’

According to the SDF, ‘the neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh have been under complete siege by factions of the Damascus government for more than six months. These neighborhoods do not, under any circumstances, constitute a military threat, nor can they serve as a launching point for any attack on the city of Aleppo.’

The statement added that, ‘The allegations promoted by bloodthirsty circles within Damascus-affiliated factions, claiming the existence of intent or military movement by our forces from these neighborhoods, are false and fabricated. They are used as a pretext to justify the siege, shelling and massacres committed against civilians.’

Fox News Digital reached out numerous times to the spokesperson for Turkey’s embassy in Washington D.C. as well as the U.S. State Department.