The United Nations’ new envoy to Syria, Geir Pedersen, arrived in Damascus on Tuesday on his first trip since being appointed, an AFP correspondent reported.

The U.S. military began the process of withdrawing its troops from Syria following a drawdown ordered by President Donald Trump, a military official said Friday.

Both Turkey and the Syrian Kurds are now pinning their hopes on Russia to resolve the problems created by President Trump’s abrupt decision last month to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria, which has threatened to ignite a new war between the United States’ Kurdish and Turkish allies.

National security adviser John Bolton left here in frustration Tuesday, with the U.S. and Turkey locked in a political standoff that threatens President Donald Trump’s plans for a troop withdrawal from Syria.

Never before has America faced immense challenges across a variety of different regions across the globe, with Russia and China trying to unravel the international order established by the U.S. after World War II, words uttered by President George Washington in his first annual address to Congress over 228 years ago resonate today as it did then.