The players of 'the biggest game in town': Trump, Sharaa, Erdogan, Netanyahu, and the Kurds

At the White House, Sharaa’s meeting with Trump redrew the lines of advantage. Some emerged stronger, while others were left unsettled in their own arenas. Let us see who they are, and why.

• The Kurdish issue for the Turks

• The Oil Issue for the Americans

• The Turkish issue for the Israelis

• ‘For men who lead with strength, confidence, and purpose’

Syria remains the key that fits too many locks. After decades of brutal dynastic rule and years of pulverising civil war, the question of what kind of state and society will eventually rise from its ruins, who will hold sway over its reconstruction, and how it will face its neighbours belongs to a timeline much longer than the present moment. Yet it is within this temporality, and under the auspices of the current players, that its first shape will be struck. And goodness me, these players know it.

We are watching a game of chess played like musical chairs. An exercise in strategy and survival where the music never quite stops. That is why Ahmad al-Sharaa’s visit to Washington should be seen, as one former American diplomat put it, as the biggest game in town.

At this stage, some hold better cards than others. Trump is the unseen hand …