BLACKWATER USA | DAILY BRIEF - Blackwater Worldwide

Posted by BW Actual on Mar 5th 2025

Gaza

After their meeting in Cairo, Arab leaders endorsed Egypt's proposal for Gaza's post-war reconstruction.
The plan would cost $53 billion - though it doesn't specify where that money would come from - and, crucially, it would not displace Gazans like Pres. Trump's plan would.
Egypt was hoping the U.S. would support its alternate proposal for Gaza, but the White House instead complained that the Egyptian plan "does not address the reality that Gaza is currently uninhabitable."
Israel also criticized the plan as "rooted in outdated perspectives" - in particular, because it leaves the door open for Hamas to influence Gaza's post-war governance (Hamas has agreed that it won't nominate any members to the Palestinian Authority-led administrative committee that would govern Gaza, but it still wants to be able to approve or reject the committee's members and agenda).
Saudi Arabia and the UAE blew off the Cairo summit, leading analysts to conclude that Egypt's plan doesn't even have the unanimous support of Arab countries.

Syria and Lebanon

Syria's Pres. Sharaa attended the Cairo meeting in hopes of being welcomed into the fold of Arab leaders. He was, albeit cautiously: Egypt's Pres. Sisi met Sharaa for a courteous handshake photo op, but refused to let serious discussions about Syria creep onto the summit's agenda.
Meanwhile, Israeli jets struck a weapons storage site in Qardaha, Syria (near the Russian base at Latakia), and Israeli troops carried out ground raids in several southern Syrian towns. Israel is targeting weapons that could fall into the hands of militants who are hostile to it.
Pres. Sharaa condemned Israel's incursions and called for Israel to abide by its 1974 ceasefire with Syria - which Prime Minister Netanyahu believes "collapsed" along with the Assad regime that signed it.
Israel also targeted Khodr Said Hashem, a Hezbollah leader who commanded the seaborne Radwan Force, in a successful airstrike in southern Lebanon yesterday. Hezbollah quickly confirmed Hashem's death.

Ukraine

Pres. Zelensky proposed a partial truce with Russia, offering to stop seaborne and long-range air attacks and swap prisoners of war - if Russia does the same.
In light of evaporating U.S. support for Ukraine, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said the EU is prepared to "massively boost its defense spending" by up to €800 billion ($857 billion), and the EU proposed a €150 billion ($160 billion) fund that member states could borrow from to buy weapons and military technology. EU leaders will meet in Brussels tomorrow to discuss defense and Ukraine.

Iran

Russia offered to mediate new nuclear talks between the U.S. and Iran. Both the U.S. and Iran have signalled a general willingness to negotiate, but neither has firmly committed to talks - or reacted to Russia's offer - yet.

Venezuela

The U.S. Treasury effectively gave Chevron a one-month deadline to wind down its operations in Venezuela by April 3. That's a much shorter deadline than Chevron expected when Pres. Trump first announced an end to its sanctions waiver last week. Chevron produces about one-fifth of Venezuela's crude oil.

DRC

The UN's refugee agency, UNHCR, estimated that nearly 80,000 Congolese have fled fighting in eastern DRC in the past two months. UNHCR guessed that around three-quarters of them - 61,000 - fled to Burundi, which is struggling to accommodate the influx.
Germany paused new aid to Rwanda over Kigali's role in the fighting.

China

China said it will increase its defense spending by 7.2% to $245 billion* in 2025 (*this is only China's official military budget; the Pentagon estimates China spends another $100 billion on defense-related items that fall under other budgets). By contrast, the U.S. Dept. of Defense requested a $850 billion budget for 2025.
This year's defense spending growth target of 7.2% is a middle-of-the-road figure: it's the same as last year's growth target and higher than Beijing's overall economic growth target of 5%, but lower than the 10%+ that China's defense budget grew in prior years.

Trade

A group of American-led investors agreed to buy majority shares in two of the Panama Canal's four major ports from Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison. Pres. Trump - who has repeatedly criticized China's growing influence over the canal - lauded the deal for "taking it back" into American hands.