ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

While President Trump  insults his erstwhile foreign partners  in a colorful twitter tirade ahead of a G-7 (or rather, G-6+1) summit in Quebec, exposing the very real fragmentation of longtime western partnerships as the US cracks down on unfair foreign trade practices, a productive meeting between China’s “Emperor for Life” Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin has been completely overshadowed, as  Bloomberg  points out. The two leaders held their first meeting this year on Thursday ahead of the June 9 Shanghai Cooperation Organization meeting  – an eight-member group led by China and Russia – which will be held in the port city of Qingdao. Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump Please tell Prime Minister Trudeau and President Macron that they are charging the U.S. massive tariffs and create non-monetary barriers. The EU trade surplus with the U.S. is $151 Billion, and Canada keeps our farmers and others out. Look forward to seeing them tomorrow. 00:0

Nasrallah during a televised speech marking the international Quds Day, Via al-Manar TV On June 8, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah vowed to keep his forces in Syria as long as Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad wants it there. Nasrallah also warned that Hezbollah will not withdraw from Syria in any other way, even if the world unites against it. “We’ll be present in Syria for as long as we’re wanted there, as long as the Syrian leadership needs us in the field … Even if the entire world unites to take us out of Syria – we won’t leave. We won’t leave until the Syrian leadership tells us,” Nasrallah said in a televised speech marking the international Quds Day, according to the Israeli Ynet News. During his speech, Nasrallah stressed that his party entered Syria in the first place to confront “a major conspiracy targeted against Syria’s people.” Hezbollah leader also called on Israel and its allies to admit that they had failed to overthrow the Syrian president and his gover

A screenshot from the video According to a video released by the Russian media outlet Rusvesna, some units of the Russian Military Police are still deployed in the Damascus region of Eastern Ghouta, which was fully liberated from militants earier this year. Military police units provide security and assist in keeping the law and order in the area. Syrian security forces, assisted by the Russians, are conducting a security operation in the area in order to crack down the remaining cells of militant groups, uncover hidden weapon depots and to remove IEDs and mines.