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      in Elections

      Turkey Emerges as a Big Winner in the Wake of al-Assad’s Ouster

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      In the messy aftermath of the fall of the Assad regime in Syria, many questions remain about the country’s future, but one thing is clear: Turkey has emerged as a winner, with more influence than ever over the rebels who now control most of Syria.Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, had long worked with and supported the Syrian rebels who marched on Damascus this month and forced President Bashar al-Assad to flee.That carefully cultivated relationship opens up “an incredibly big domain for economic and political influence,” said Asli Aydintasbas, a visiting fellow at Brookings Institution in Washington with a particular focus on Turkey.“Syria may not have a smooth transition, and there may be renewed fighting between factions,” she added. “But what is uncontestable is that Turkey’s influence will only grow, economically and politically.”In the process, Turkey appears to have also weakened the regional influence of Russia, which along with Iran was a key backer of the Syrian president, she said. It is unclear whether Russia will be able to retain the military bases it has on Syria’s Mediterranean coast.Initially, Turkey did not say much when the rebels swept across northern Syria, seizing two important cities in a few days. But when Mr. Erdogan finally did speak, he was quietly confident.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      in US Politics

      Questions dog Trump pick for Middle East adviser with inconsistent résumé

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      President-elect Donald Trump’s appointee to advise him on Middle East affairs, Massad Boulos, is reported to have significant discrepancies between his public profile and documented business background, casting doubt on the thoroughness of the former president’s vetting process.Corporate records reviewed by the New York Times reveal that Boulos, father-in-law to Tiffany Trump, is frequently described as a billionaire mogul, but actually manages a truck dealership in Nigeria that generated less than $66,000 in profit last year. The company, SCOA Nigeria PLC, is valued at approximately $865,000, with Boulos’s personal stake worth just $1.53, according to the securities filings in the Times report.The advisory position, which does not require Senate confirmation, follows Boulos’s prominent role in Trump’s 2024 campaign outreach to Arab American voters, particularly in key swing states like Michigan. Boulos positioned himself as a critical intermediary, helping Trump navigate complex political sentiments within Arab American communities – and doing Arab-language interviews with media in the region.While Boulos has been active in Arab American political circles, his murky business background and lack of diplomatic and policy expertise raises questions about the depth of the vetting process conducted by Trump’s team – who were also said to be caught-off guard by accusations against Pentagon nominee Pete Hegseth.During the campaign, Boulos pounded the pavement in Michigan to tout Trump’s foreign policy record, claiming he was “the only president in modern US history who did not start any wars”, despite Trump resupplying Saudi Arabia with an arms package, including precision bombs and munitions, for its brutal war in Yemen.Boulos’s political connections are multifaceted. He’s reported to maintain relationships with various Lebanese political figures, including Christian politician Sleiman Frangieh, an ally of Hezbollah whom the militant group endorsed for president.Boulos’s own background includes a failed parliamentary run in Lebanon in 2009. It was his son Michael’s marriage to Tiffany in Mar-a-Lago in 2022 that significantly elevated the family’s political profile.A May meeting with dozens of Arab American leaders in Michigan highlighted the challenges of Boulos’s political positioning. The gathering, which included Trump adviser Richard Grenell, reportedly became tense when Grenell repeated controversial comments about removing Palestinians from Gaza’s “waterfront property”, causing frustration among attendees.Trump announced the appointment on Truth Social in early December, describing Boulos as “a skilled negotiator and a steadfast advocate for PEACE in the Middle East”.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionIf appointed, Boulos would inherit a Middle East in profound crisis, with Israel’s destructive and more than year-long war in Gaza leading to at least 45,000 dead Palestinians and international arrest warrants for the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, former defense minister Yoav Gallant and Hamas leader Mohammed Deif. The portfolio also includes a new era for Syria as rebels toppled longtime autocrat Bashar al-Assad and war-torn Lebanon with ongoing strikes between Hezbollah and Israel.The appointment also follows a pattern of Trump selecting family-connected individuals for key positions, with Boulos joining Ivanka Trump’s father-in-law, Charles Kushner, who was named as the potential US ambassador to France. More

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      in Elections

      Man Found in Syria Appears to Be a Missing American

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      Syria’s new authorities said on Thursday that an American citizen who had been imprisoned while Bashar al-Assad was in power had been found outside Damascus and handed over to the rebel group that now controls the capital.In interviews with international news media, the man appeared to identify himself as Travis Timmerman, an American who is believed to have gone missing from Budapest, Hungary, this year. In a video aired on Thursday by the news channel Al Arabiya, someone is heard asking the man if his name is Travis Timmerman. The man says, “That’s right.” Hisham al-Eid, the mayor of Al-Thihabiyeh, a poor, partly rural town east of Damascus, said that the man had been found on Thursday morning on a main road. He was barefoot and cold but otherwise seemed to be in good health, Mr. al-Eid said.The man told reporters that he had entered Syria from Lebanon on a Christian pilgrimage, and had been detained for several months. He said he had received food and water while in detention, and was allowed to go to the bathroom three times a day.In another video posted by Al Arabiya, the man, wearing a beard and a gray hooded top, said that he had been held in a cell alone. When asked how he was freed, he said that on Monday, someone “took a hammer and they broke my door down.”It was not immediately clear where the man had been held. The fall of the authoritarian Assad regime over the weekend to rebel forces led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham has prompted the release of many prisoners held in a sprawling network of detention centers operated by the former government.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      in Elections

      Who Set the Stage for al-Assad’s Ouster? There Are Different Answers in the U.S. and Israel.

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      President Biden says he weakened Russia, Iran and Hezbollah, laying the groundwork for Bashar al-Assad’s ouster. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the Syrian leader would still be in power had he listened to American advice.Bashar al-Assad had barely settled into his new quarters in Russia before the argument broke out over who can take the credit for ousting him, ending 53 years and two generations of brutal family rule over Syria.President Biden and his aides say they set the stage, because they worked relentlessly to weaken Syria’s main backers, including Russia, Iran and Hezbollah. There was a reason, Mr. Biden argued, that none of Mr. al-Assad’s allies were able or willing to come bail him out at the very moment he needed rescue.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and his aides tell a very different story, saying the only reason Mr. al-Assad fell was that Israel killed the head of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, which Mr. Netanyahu called “a turning point in the collapse of the axis.” Israeli officials have been quick to note that Mr. Netanyahu ordered that attack over the objections of the Biden administration, which feared that going after Mr. Nasrallah would risk a wider war.And Mr. Netanyahu inserted the knife a bit himself, saying that the key was his decision to ignore pressure “to stop the war before we accomplished all of our goals.” His message was clear: Had he listened to Mr. Biden’s warnings about avoiding a “wider war,’’ Mr. al-Assad would most likely still be lounging in his palace this week.Sorting out the truth here is not easy, and historians of the Middle East will most likely be arguing for years over what factors were at play, not least the Syrian rebel force itself, which had crucial support from Turkey. Certainly, if there was an American contribution to Mr. al-Assad’s fall, it took a while: In August 2011, President Barack Obama said it was time for Mr. al-Assad to “step aside,” and two years later, on his first visit to Israel as president, he stood with Mr. Netanyahu and declared that Mr. al-Assad had lost all legitimacy and “must go.”Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel at the United Nations in September.Dave Sanders for The New York TimesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      in Elections

      Syria After al-Assad’s Overthrow: What’s Happening and What Comes Next

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      Rebels are asserting control in Damascus as Israel and other countries carry out military operations.Follow live updates here.As a rebel alliance tries to create a transitional government for Syria, armed factions and outside powers are still fighting to fill the void left by retreating government forces.Kurdish-led fighters in northern Syria who are backed by the United States said early Wednesday that they had agreed to a U.S.-brokered cease-fire in Manbij, a city where they have been battling to fend off forces backed by Turkey.And the Israeli military has launched hundreds ofairstrikes against military assets across Syria in recent days, saying it was trying to keep them out of the hands of Islamist extremists.Here’s a guide to understanding where things stand in Syria, and what may come next.Here’s what you need to know:Who’s in charge?Who is Ahmed al-Shara?What is Israel doing in Syria?What is Turkey doing?What is the U.S. doing?What are the internal factions in Syria?Who’s in charge?Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, whose name means Organization for the Liberation of the Levant, was the main rebel group leading the latest offensive, launching a surprise assault in late November from northwestern Syria that quickly led to the fall of President Bashar al-Assad. It is now leading the transition to a new Syrian government.Mohammed al-Bashir, a rebel leader affiliated with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, announced in a brief address on Syrian television on Tuesday that he was assuming the role of caretaker prime minister until March. 1. Mr. al-Bashir previously served as the head of the administration in rebel-held territory in the northwest.Approximate advance of the Israeli military into the buffer zone More

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      in Elections

      Trump Offers Confusing Clues on Syria

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      The president-elect faces hard choices about the country’s post-Assad future. His vows not to get involved might be hard to keep.President-elect Donald J. Trump will inherit a dangerous new Middle East crisis in Syria when he assumes office in January. But how he might approach a nation now controlled by rebels with terrorist roots is unclear, and may be decided by fierce competing arguments among advisers and foreign leaders in the months to come.There are many good reasons to expect Mr. Trump to take a hands-off approach to Syria, which erupted into civil war in 2011. One is Mr. Trump’s apparent disdain for the country, which he has branded a land of “sand and death.”Mr. Trump has also long railed against broader U.S. efforts to reshape former Middle East dictatorships such as Iraq and Libya, in what he calls America’s “endless wars.” As rebels entered Damascus, Syria’s capital, over the weekend, Mr. Trump posted on social media that the country was “a mess” and that the United States “should have nothing to do with it.”“This is not our fight. Let it play out. Do not get involved,” Mr. Trump wrote, in all capital letters.The sentiment was echoed on social media by Vice President-elect JD Vance, a fervent critic of American foreign policy overreach.Mr. Trump plans to nominate Tulsi Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman, as his director of national intelligence. She has spent years arguing that the United States has no business getting involved in Syria’s long-running civil war.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      in Elections

      Syrians, in Shock and With Some Unease, Celebrate the Fall of al-Assad

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      A day after the regime of President Bashar al-Assad fell, civilians poured into the streets of Damascus, weeping in disbelief. Many sought word of relatives held in a notorious prison on the outskirts of the city.Syrian security checkpoints sat empty on Monday across Damascus. Abandoned tanks were scattered across the roads, along with stray pieces of military uniforms stripped off by soldiers when opposition forces stormed into the city a day earlier.Rebels with rifles slung over their shoulders drove around, many seemingly shocked at just how quickly they had ousted Syria’s long-entrenched president, Bashar al-Assad. Damascus residents, too, were walking around the city’s streets in a state of disbelief.Some rushed to a notorious prison on the outskirts of Damascus, the capital, desperate to find loved ones who had disappeared under Mr. al-Assad’s brutal reign. Others clambered on top of cars and screamed curses at the Assad family, words that days ago could have meant a death sentence.By day’s end, with Mr. al-Assad and his family having fled on a plane to his ally Russia, thousands of Syrians had converged at Umayyad Square in the city center to revel in the fall of the regime and their newfound, if uncertain, sense of freedom.“We’re shocked; all of us are just shocked,” one woman, Shahnaz Sezad, 50, said. “It’s as if we’re all coming back to life after a nightmare.”She watched, tears welling up, as a scene unimaginable just days ago played out in front of her. One rebel shouted into a microphone: “The Syrian people want to execute Bashar! The Syrian people want to execute Bashar!” A deafening “paw-paw-paw” of gunfire sounded as others shot into the air.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      in Elections

      Oil Markets Shrug Off Overthrow of Syria’s al-Assad

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      Oil markets have shown little reaction to the collapse of the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad, as traders most likely calculated that Syria was only a modest producer and that events there did not immediately threaten exports from the wider region.In trading on Monday, Brent crude oil, the international benchmark, rose about 1 percent, to $71.80 a barrel.Syria has modest oil reserves, and President-elect Donald J. Trump said during his first presidency that they should be secured, but markets were largely shrugging off the risk that conflict in the Middle East could lead to disruption of supplies. There are about 900 U.S. troops in Syria.In more than a year since Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel from Gaza, there has been little interruption to flows of oil and natural gas, beyond rerouting tanker traffic to avoid attacks by Houthi fighters in Yemen.The markets have instead focused on the tepid growth of global demand that can probably be met by new supplies from the United States, Brazil, Canada and other producers not bound by the agreements of the OPEC Plus cartel.On Thursday, OPEC Plus pushed back plans to increase output to at least the second quarter of next year, the third delay in recent months.Richard Bronze, head of geopolitics at Energy Aspects, a research firm, said, “There’s still a residual view that the oil market will be oversupplied next year.” He added that traders were worried that Mr. Trump’s policies would push oil prices lower “whether due to higher U.S. production or tariffs disrupting economic activity.”Mr. Bronze said he thought that those theories would prove incorrect, but “the market will have to see it to believe it.”Syria is in the neighborhood of large oil producers such as Iraq and Saudi Arabia, but its own production has been sharply curtailed by a decade of civil war.In 2023, Syria produced 40,000 barrels of oil a day — a trickle relative to major oil producers, according to the Statistical Review of World Energy, published by the Energy Institute, a London-based nonprofit.In the early 2000s, Syria pumped more than 600,000 barrels a day, comparable to midsize producers like Azerbaijan or Egypt. That performance gives hope that with a stable political environment and improved management, oil sales could be an important source of revenue for a future Syrian government. More