December 13, 2024

Good morning. We’re covering the latest in Syria and an interview with a reclusive Taliban leader.

Plus, British pubs are scrambling for Guinness.

Israeli vehicles at the border between Israel and Syria yesterday. Atef Safadi/EPA, via Shutterstock

Israel said it will stay in claimed Syrian territory

As countries in the Middle East and beyond worked out how to respond to the fall of the Assad government, Israel said that its military would stay in Syrian territory it had seized until “a new force” was established that met its security demands. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli soldiers would deploy “temporarily,” but he did not give a timeline for their departure.

The Israeli military has mostly deployed in a 155-square-mile zone that was intended to be a demilitarized area monitored by U.N. peacekeepers. But soldiers have also taken up positions deeper inside Syrian territory, according to Israeli officials. Any deal between Israel and the Islamist rebels who led the offensive in Syria appears distant, given their mutual animosity.

Other developments:

U.S. diplomacy: Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Jordan yesterday before leaving for Turkey, where he will meet with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Missing American: A foreign man who had been imprisoned under the Assad government appears to have been found.

Seeking justice: The fall of Syria’s government has reinvigorated a long push for justice over crimes committed by the Assad regime, but there is frustration that former President Bashar al-Assad may not stand trial.

Mood in Aleppo: In the northern Syrian city, exiled residents celebrated as they returned home.

Massad Boulos in Detroit in October. Nick Hagen for The New York Times

Trump picked a truck salesman to be Middle East adviser

President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming Middle East adviser, Massad Boulos, has enjoyed a reputation as a billionaire mogul. He told a reporter in October that his business was worth billions. Trump has referred to him as a “dealmaker.”

But Boulos has spent the past two decades selling trucks and heavy machinery in Nigeria for a company that made a profit of less than $66,000 last year, records show. There is no indication that Boulos, a Lebanese-American whose son is married to Trump’s daughter Tiffany, is a man of significant wealth as a result of his businesses. He said last week that he hasn’t been to the Middle East in years. Confusion over his background raises questions about how thoroughly Trump’s team vetted his picks.

More on U.S. politics President Biden is commuting the sentences of nearly 1,500 people and pardoning 39 convicted of nonviolent crimes in the largest grant of presidential clemency in a single day. Trump promised to start pardoning nonviolent participants in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol during the “first hour” he returns to office. Here’s the latest on the next U.S. administration and a list of Trump’s cabinet picks so far.

Mullah Osman Jawhari Bryan Denton for The New York Times

How the U.S. created a deadly enemy in Afghanistan

In 2008, 150 insurgents overran an American base in a tiny Afghan village. Nine U.S. soldiers were killed and two dozen wounded in what came to be known as the Battle of Want. Azam Ahmed, a former Kabul bureau chief, interviewed the Taliban commander who led the assault: Mullah Osman Jawhari.

When the war started, the people in Mullah Osman’s valley believed in a future promised by the U.S. There were no Taliban there. Then, U.S. airstrikes began killing innocent people. Taliban recruitment picked up, Mullah Osman said. The Americans turned allies into enemies. Read the full story here.

Behind the story: This is how Azam made contact with Mullah Osman and what he learned as the commander took him to the village and walked him through the battle.