This is CBS Eye on the World.

Here's John Batchelor.

At mid-year, I welcome my dear colleague Bill Rajo,

who keeps the extremely sophisticated chronology,

Long War Journal, of the conflict zones these last decades.

And we begin with the conflict zone of Syria, because Bill articulate has made it very clear that

the shaking of hands in Saudi Arabia between the President of the United States and a man who used to be known as Al-Jalani, the Al-Qaeda leader, but is now known as Al-Shara, the Damascus leader.

That shaking of hands did not begin a new era, nor the conversation ever since about lifting sanctions, nor the apparent willingness

of Western European nations to make calls in Damascus or to exchange support for Al-Shaara.

Two competing headlines for Bill to comment on keeping the Long War Journal.

One, the upbeat one, Reuters.

World Bank expects Syria's GDP to grow 1% in 2025. And the other, from the Jerusalem Post.

IDF apprehends terror cell operated by Iran's Kud's force in southern Syria. Bill, a very good evening to you. Al-Shaara,

what's his backstory? What do we need to know about him to maintain our distance? Good

evening to you. Good evening, John. Yes, and that is the key question, and it's not just

Al-Shara, also those in his government, but he is the shining example of what the new Syrian government looks like.

He was a member of al-Qaeda.

We captured, he fought against U.S. forces in the early 2000s.

We captured him.

He was at the Buka prison in Baghdad, which is known as the University of Jihad in Iraq, what it was. That's where Al Qaeda recruited, trained, and indoctrinated people. As soon as he gets out of prison, we release him. He rejoins al-Qaeda, goes to Syria, leads al-Qaeda's branch there. So it tells you

everything you need to know about who he was when we captured him. Obviously, we didn't have a

good understanding of his importance to al-Qaeda. He led al-Qaeda's branch of Syria. He was the one who

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