The roads to Damascus
by TARIQ ALI
None but a few corrupt cronies will be shedding tears at the tyrant’s departure. But there should be no doubt that what we are witnessing in Syria today is a huge defeat, a mini 1967 for the Arab world. As I write, Israeli land forces have entered this battered country. There is not yet a definitive settlement, but a few things are clear. Assad is a refugee in Moscow. His Baathist apparatus did a deal with the Eastern NATO leader, Recep Tayyip Erdo?an (whose brutalities in Idlib are legion), and offered up the country on a platter. The rebels have agreed that Assad’s Prime Minister, Mohammed Ghazi al-Jalali, should continue to oversee the state for the time being. Will this be a form of Assadism without Assad, even if the country is about to pivot geopolitically away from Russia and what remains of the ‘Resistance Axis’?
Like Iraq and Libya, where the US has a lock on the oil, Syria will now become a shared American–Turkish colony. US imperial policy, globally, is to break up countries that cannot be swallowed whole and remove all meaningful sovereignty in order to assert economic and political hegemony. This may have started ‘accidentally’ in the former Yugoslavia but it has since become a pattern. EU satellites use similar methods to ensure that smaller nations (Georgia, Romania) are kept under control. Democracy and human rights have little to do with any of this. It’s a global gamble.
In 2003, after Baghdad fell to the US, the exultant Israeli Ambassador in Washington congratulated George W. Bush and advised him not to stop now, but to move on to Damascus and Tehran. Yet the US victory had an unintended but predictable side-effect: Iraq became a rump Shia state, enormously strengthening Iran’s position in the region. The debacle there, and subsequently in Libya, meant that Damascus had to wait for more than a decade before receiving proper imperial attention. Meanwhile, Iranian and Russian support for Assad upped the stakes of routine regime change.
Now, Assad’s ousting has created a different type of vacuum – likely to be filled by NATO’s Turkey and the US via the ‘ex-al-Qaida’ Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (the rebranding of its leader Abu Mohammad al-Jolani as a freedom fighter after his stint in a US prison in Iraq is par for the course), as well as Israel. The latter’s contribution was enormous, having disabled Hezbollah and wrecked Beirut with yet another round of massive bombing raids. In the wake of this victory, it is difficult to imagine that Iran will be left alone. Though the ultimate aim for both the US and Israel is regime change there, degrading and disarming the country is the first priority. This wider plan for reshaping the region helps to explain the unstinting support given by Washington and its European proxies to the continuing Israeli genocide in Palestine. After more than a year of slaughter, the Kantian principle that state actions must be such that they can become a universally respected law looks like a sick joke.
Who will replace Assad? Before his flight, some reports suggested that if the dictator made a 180-degree turn – breaking with Iran and Russia and restoring good relations with the US and Israel, as he and his father had done before – then the Americans might be inclined to keep him on. Now it is too late, but the state apparatus that abandoned him has declared its readiness to collaborate with whomever. Will Erdo?an do the same? The Sultan of Donkeys will surely want his own people, nurtured in Idlib since they were child soldiers, in charge and under Ankara’s control. If he succeeds in imposing a Turkish puppet regime, it will be another version of what happened in Libya. But he is unlikely to have it all his own way. Erdo?an is strong on demagogy but weak on actions, and the US and Israel might veto a cleansed al-Qaida government for their own reasons, despite having used the jihadis to fight Assad. Regardless, it is unlikely that the replacement regime will abolish the Mukh?bar?t (secret police), illegalize torture or offer accountable government.
Prior to the Six Day War, one of the central components of Arab nationalism and unity was the Baath Party that ruled Syria and had a strong base in Iraq; the other, more powerful one was Nasser’s government in Egypt. Syrian Baathism during the pre-Assad period was relatively enlightened and radical. When I met Prime Minister Yusuf Zuayyin in Damascus in 1967, he explained that the only way forward was to outflank conservative nationalism by making Syria ‘the Cuba of the Middle East’. Yet Israel’s assault that year led to the speedy destruction of the Egyptian and Syrian armies, which paved the way for the death of Nasserite Arab nationalism. Zuayyin was toppled and Hafez-al Assad was propelled to power with tacit US support – much like Saddam Hussein in Iraq, whom the CIA supplied with a list of the top cadres of the Iraqi Communist Party. The Baathist radicals in both countries were discarded, and the party’s founder Michel Aflaq resigned in disgust when he saw where it was headed.
These new Baathist dictatorships were supported by certain sections of the population, however, as long as they provided a basic safety net. Iraq under Saddam and Syria under the Assad père et fils were brutal but social dictatorships. Assad Senior hailed from the middle-strata of the peasantry, and passed several progressive reforms to ensure that his class was kept happy, reducing the tax burden and abolishing usury. In 1970, a vast majority of Syrian villages had only natural light; peasants woke up and went to sleep with the sun. A couple decades later, the construction of the Euphrates dam enabled the electrification of 95% of them, with energy heavily subsidized by the state.
It was these policies, rather than repression alone, which guaranteed the stability of the regime. Most of the population turned a blind eye to the torture and imprisonment of citizens in the cities. Assad and his coterie firmly believed that man was little more than an economic creature, and that if needs of this type could be satisfied, then only a small minority would rebel (‘one or two hundred at the most’, Assad remarked, ‘were the types for whom Mezzeh prison was originally intended’). The eventual uprising against the younger Assad in 2011 was triggered by his turn to neoliberalism and the exclusion of the peasantry. When it calcified into a bitter civil war, one option would have been a compromise settlement and power-sharing deal – but the apparatchiks who are currently negotiating with Erdo?an advised against any such arrangement.
Side Car -New Left Review for more
Syria war live tracker: Maps and charts
AL JAZEERA LABS
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is said to have fled Damascus to an unknown destination as opposition fighters entered the capital and people poured out onto the streets and public squares in celebration.
On November 27, groups opposing the government of al-Assad, led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, launched a surprise offensive that captured large parts of Aleppo, the country’s second largest city. In the week after, Syrian opposition forces moved at lightning speed to capture Hama, and now they say they have captured Homs.
The opposition forces’ rapid gains are the most significant since 2016 and have thrust various factions back into the spotlight.
Who controls what on the ground?
The map below shows the territorial control of various groups as of December 8, 05:00 GMT. In the early hours of the morning, opposition fighters entered the heart of Damascus and declared a “new era” free of revenge, inviting Syrians overseas to return.
The commander of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, Abu Mohammed al-Julani, said all state institutions will remain under the supervision of al-Assad’s prime minister until they are handed over officially.
There have been four main groups competing for control on the ground in Syria. They are:
- Syrian government forces: The army, the government’s main military force, fights alongside the National Defence Forces, a pro-government paramilitary group.
- Syrian Democratic Forces: This Kurdish-dominated, United States-backed group controls parts of eastern Syria.
- HTS and other allied opposition groups: The HTS is the largest fighting force and the strongest presence in opposition-held Idlib.
- Turkish and Turkish-aligned Syrian rebel forces: The Syrian National Army is a Turkish-backed rebel force in northern Syria.
Al Jazeera for more
Bashar al-Assad’s regime has fallen in Syria. How will this impact an already fractured region?
by ALI MAMOURI
The swift and unexpected fall of the Syrian capital, Damascus, to Sunni opposition forces marks a pivotal moment in the modern history of the Middle East.
Bashar al-Assad’s regime had withstood more than a decade of uprisings, civil war and international sanctions since the onset of widespread protests in 2011. Yet, it collapsed in a remarkably short period of time.
This sudden turn of events, with the opposition advancing without significant battles or resistance, has left regional powers scrambling to assess the fallout and its broader implications.
This dramatic development signals a reshuffling of power dynamics in the region. It also raises questions about Syria’s future and the role of its neighbours and global stakeholders in managing the post-Assad landscape.
What does the future hold for Syria?
With the collapse of the Assad regime, Syria now finds itself fragmented and divided among three dominant factions, each with external backers and distinct goals:
1. Syrian opposition forces, led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham: These groups, supported by Turkey, now control central Syria, extending from the northern border with Turkey to the southern border with Jordan.
Although they share a common religious identity, the Sunni factions have a history of internal conflicts, which could hinder their ability to form a cohesive government or maintain long-term stability.
The opposition forces range from former jihadists coming from Islamic State and al-Qaeda to secular groups such as the Syrian National Army, which split from Assad’s army after the 2011 uprising.
2. Kurdish forces: The Kurdish groups control territory in northeastern Syria, bordering Turkey in the north and Iraq in the east. They continue to receive support from the United States, which has established military bases in the area. This support risks escalating tensions with Turkey, which views Kurdish empowerment as a threat to its territorial integrity.
3. Alawite forces: Pro-Assad Alawite factions, primarily situated in the coastal regions of western Syria, maintain strong ties with Iran, Iraq and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group. These areas could serve as a stronghold for remnants of Assad-aligned groups after the opposition’s takeover, perpetuating sectarian divides.
The stark divisions among these groups, combined with the absence of a mutually acceptable mediator, suggest that Syria may now face prolonged instability and conflict.
How will this impact the region?
The swift fall of the Assad regime has profound implications for the major players in the Middle East.
The Sunni rebel forces, with strong Turkish backing, capitalised on a moment of vulnerability in Syria. The Assad regime’s allies were preoccupied — Russia with its ongoing war in Ukraine, and Iran and its proxies with their ongoing conflict with Israel. This provided a strategic opportunity for the rebels to advance swiftly across Syria to the capital, Damascus.
Turkey already effectively controls a strip of territory in northern Syria, where its military has been fighting Syrian Kurdish forces. Now, with the victory of its Syrian opposition allies, Turkey is expected to expand its political and military influence in Syria, causing more challenges for the Kurdish minority fighting for its autonomy.
The Conversation for more
Israel embarrassed: Hezbollah destroys IDF, Syria on red alert w/ Ghadi Francis & Kevork Almassian
Warring in Syria: New phases, old lies
by BINOY KAMPMARK
A new bloody phase has opened up in Syria, as if it was ever possible to contemplate another one in that tormented land. Silly terms such as “moderate” are being paired with “rebels”, a coupling that can also draw scorn.
What counts as news reporting on the subject in the Western press stable adopts a threadbare approach. We read or hear almost nothing about the dominant backers in this latest round of bloodletting. “With little warning last Wednesday, a coalition of Syrian rebels launched a rapid assault that soon seized Aleppo as well as towns in the nearby Idlib and Hama provinces,” reported NBC News, drawing its material from the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
We are told about the advances of one organisation in particular: Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an outgrowth of Jabhat al-Nusra, a former al-Qaeda affiliate. While the urgent reporting stressed the suddenness of it all, HTS has been playing in the jihadi playground since 2017, suggesting that it is far from a neophyte organisation keen to get in on the kill.
From Al Jazeera, we get pulpier detail. HTS is the biggest group in what is dubbed Operation Deterrence of Aggression. HTS itself comprises Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, Liwa al-Haqq, Jabhat Ansar al-Din and Jaysh al-Sunna. That umbrella group is drawn from the Fateh al-Mubin operations centre, which is responsible for overseeing the broader activities of the armed opposition in northwestern Syria under the control of the Syrian Salvation Government (SSG). It is through the offices of SSG that HTS delivers essential goods while running food and welfare programs. Through that governance wing, civil documentation for some 3 million civilians, two-thirds of whom are internally displaced people, has been issued.
The group, headed by Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani, himself an al-Qaeda recruit from 2003, then of Jabhat al-Nusra, has done much since its leader fell out with Islamic State and al-Qaeda. For one, HTS has a series of goals. It purports to be an indigenous movement keen on eliminating the Assad regime, establishing Islamic rule and expelling all Iranian militias from Syrian soil. But megalomania among zealots will always out, and al-Jawlani has shown himself a convert to an even broader cause, evidenced by this remark: “with this spirit… we will not only reach Damascus, but, Allah permitting, Jerusalem will be awaiting our arrival”.
All of these measures conform to the same Jihadi fundamentalism that would draw funding from any Western intelligence service, provided they are fighting the appropriate villain of the moment. We should also expect routine beheadings, frequent atrocities and indulgent pillaging. But no, the cognoscenti would have you believe otherwise. We are dealing, supposedly, with a different beast, calmer, wiser, and cashed-up.
For one thing, HTS is said to be largely self-sufficient, exercising a monopoly through its control of the al-Sham Bank and the oil sector through the Watad Company. It has also, in the words of Robin Yassin-Kassab, become a “greatly moderated and better organised reincarnation of Jabhat al-Nusra.” This could hardly cause cheer, but Yassin-Kassab at least admits that the group remains “an authoritarian Islamist militia” though not in the eschatological fanatical mould of its forebears. “It has a much more positive policy towards sectarian and ethnic minorities than ISIS.” Fewer beheadings, perhaps.
A fascinating omission in much commentary on these advances is Turkey’s outsized role. Turkey has been the stalking figure of much of the rebel resistance against the Assad regime, certainly over the last few years. Of late, it has tried, without much purchase, to normalise ties with Assad. In truth, such efforts stretch as far back as late 2022. The topics of concern for Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an are few: dealing with the Kurdish resistance fighters he sorely wishes to liquidate as alleged extensions of the PKK, and the Syrian refugee problem. The Syrian leader has made any rapprochement between the two states contingent on the withdrawal of Turkish forces from Syria.
Dissident Voice for more
Damascus is free?
by ASHRAF JEHANGIR QAZI
The Arabs cannot make war without Egypt. But they cannot make peace without Syria.—Henry Kissinger
Syria was my first ambassadorial assignment, so I have a special affinity for it and its people. On welcoming me, a Syrian official told me “You have served in Egypt. They are more charming. We are more honest.” Like all such sayings, there is a grain of truth in it. Nevertheless, I love Egypt and the Egyptians just as much.
I arrived in Damascus — reputed to be the oldest capital city in the world — just after President Hafez al-Assad had destroyed Hama in crushing an uprising against his Alawi-dominated regime. He was widely regarded as being as brilliant a strategist as he was ruthless a ruler. After the 1971 Arab-Israeli war and the Kissinger-engineered defection of Egypt from the frontline of Arab states against Israel, Syria emerged as the leader under Assad. Kissinger, while a strategic opponent, also admired Assad’s strategic acumen.
After 53 years of Alawi rule over Syria, it has suddenly ended. Depending on one’s inclination, Damascus has either fallen or is free. In truth, both descriptions are accurate.
Damascus, as the metropolis of Arab dignity and resistance to US and Israeli neo-imperial dominance over the region, has indeed fallen. And yet, given the brutal minority rule of the elder and younger Assad regimes that saw the brutal repression of any dissent, Damascus is indeed free — for the moment.
Setback for some, boon for others
There is no doubt that the latest developments represent a major strategic gain for the US, Israel, Turkiye and Saudi Arabia, and a major setback for Russia, Iran and Palestine. The regional picture, however, may in the short run be more important than the larger global picture.
Turkiye, and especially President Erdogan, appear to be immediate winners. Turkiye has considerable influence over the Kurdish region of Syria in the northeast, and possibly with the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which sees itself as an Islamic nationalist organisation, after having renounced its ties with Al-Qaeda.
Erdogan will now be able to repatriate Syrian refugees in Turkiye, and as a democratic country, will seek to moderate any authoritarian tendencies of the HTS. In this regard, Turkiye may be up against Saudi Arabia, which sees itself as the patron of Sunni regimes, even though it is apparently moving away from Salafi puritanism under Mohammed Bin Salman.
The immediate implications for Iran and Hezbollah are very negative. Iran’s influence over Syria, and Syria’s over Lebanon via Hezbollah, were significant obstacles to US hegemony and Israeli militarism in the region. The implications for the Palestinians, at first glance, may appear to be even worse. They depended heavily on the support of the apparent losers in the latest developments.
But Trump may turn out to be a wild card. His first response to the latest developments has been to call for a “hands-off” policy towards Syria. This may be out of deference to Putin; it may also be because he may now be able to tell Israel that a ceasefire in Gaza is far more feasible because Hamas has been effectively isolated from the assistance it needed to maintain its heroic resistance.
Accordingly, Israel is in a better position than ever to choose peace over security (read unending militarism), which would, in turn, enable the revival of the Abraham Accords to help Arab monarchs keep their people calmer over Palestine, and under control.
Great power dynamics
Dawn for more
Syria’s post-mortem: Terror, occupation, and Palestine
by PEPE ESCOBAR
The NATO-Israeli cabal cheering on Damascus’s fall will get more than they bargained for. Power struggles and infighting among extremist militias and civil society, each backed by different regional and foreign actors who want a piece of the pie.
The short headline defining the abrupt, swift end of Syria as we knew it would be: Eretz Israel meets new-Ottomanism. The subtitle? A win-win for the west, and a lethal blow against the Axis of Resistance.
But to quote still-pervasive American pop culture, perhaps the owls are not what they seem.
Let’s start with former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s surrender. Qatari diplomats, off the record, maintain that Assad tried to negotiate a transfer of power with the armed opposition that had launched a major military offensive in the days prior, starting with Aleppo, then swiftly headed southward toward Hama, Homs, aiming for Damascus. That’s what was discussed in detail between Russia, Iran, and Turkiye behind closed doors in Doha this past weekend, during the last sigh of the moribund “Astana process” to demilitarize Syria
The transfer of power negotiation failed. Hence, Assad was offered asylum by Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. That explains why both Iran and Russia instantly changed the terminology while still in Doha, and began to refer to the “legitimate opposition” in a bid to distinguish non-militant reformists from the armed extremists cutting a swathe across the state.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov – his body language telling everything about his anger – literally said, “Assad must negotiate with the legitimate opposition, which is on the UN list.”
Very important: Lavrov did not mean Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the Salafi-jihadi, or Rent-a-Jihadi mob financed by the Turkish National Intelligence Organization (MIT) with weapons funded by Qatar, and fully supported by NATO and Tel Aviv.
What happened after the funeral in Doha was quite murky, suggesting a western intel remote-controlled coup, developing as fast as lightning, complete with reports of domestic betrayals.
The original Astana idea was to keep Damascus safe and to have Ankara manage HTS. Yet Assad had already committed a serious strategic blunder, believing in lofty promises by NATO messaged through his newfound Arab leader friends in the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
To his own astonishment, according to Syrian and regional officials, Assad finally realized how fragile his own position was, having turned down military assistance from his stalwart regional allies, Iran and Hezbollah, believing that his new Arab allies might keep him safe.
The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) was in shambles after 13 years of war and ruthless US sanctions. Logistics were prey to deplorable corruption. The rot was systemic. But importantly, while many were prepared to fight the foreign-backed terror groups once again, insiders say Assad never fully deployed his army to counterattack the onslaught.
Tehran and Moscow tried everything – up to the last minute. In fact, Assad was already in deep trouble since his visit to Moscow on 29 November that reaped no tangible results. The Damascus establishment thus regarded Russia’s insistence that Assad must abandon his previous red lines on negotiating a political settlement as a de facto signal pointing to the end.
Turkiye: ‘we have nothing to do with it’
Apart from doing nothing to prevent the increasing atrophy and collapse of the SAA, Assad did nothing to rein in Israel, which has been bombing Syria non-stop for years.
Until the very last moment, Tehran was willing to help: two brigades were ready to get into Syria, but it would take at least two weeks to deploy them.
The Fars News Agency explained the mechanism in detail – from the Syrian leadership’s inexorable lack of motivation to fight the terror brigades to Assad ignoring serious warnings from Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei since June, all the way to two months ago, with other Iranian officials warning that HTS and its foreign backers were preparing a blitzkrieg. According to the Iranians:
“After Aleppo fell, it became clear that Assad had no real intentions of staying in power, so we started to engage in diplomatic talks with the opposition, and arranged the safe exit of our troops from Syria. If the SAA does not fight, neither will we risk our soldiers’ lives. Russia and the UAE had managed to convince him to step down, so there was nothing we could do.”
There’s no Russian confirmation that they convinced Assad to step down: one just needs to interpret that failed meeting in Moscow on 29 November. Yet, significantly, there is confirmation, before that, about Turkiye knowing everything about the HTS offensive as far back as six months ago.
The Cradle for more
The Fall of the House of Assad
by RAOUF HALABY
Remember the Biden pier off Gaza’s coast? It is perhaps the best metaphor for Genocide Joe’s failed foreign policy (Near East and Ukraine). The takeover in Syria is an equally failed Biden EU foreign policy, a policy that is dictated by Netanyahu’s Zionist fetish to “create a new Middle East.” Credit the Brits and the French for their decision way back in 1917 when, at the Treaty of Versailles, they redrew the entire map of Middle East to suit their geostrategic interests (oil and access to their colonies). The post-1917 superficial boundaries of the entire Middle East were drawn without regard to ethnic/religious/cultural sensitivities.
The Iraq/Kuwait/Syrian/Lebanese/ Iran/ Egypt/Palestine/Israel/ Kurdish wars that ensued can, in great measure, be traced to all the British and French partitions. With the emergence of a powerful America in the post-WWII era and the creation, in 1948, of the state of Israel on historic Palestine and the expulsion of 750,000 people, the US became the hegemonic warlord of a region valued solely for its oil and as a buffer to Communism. Since 1948, the never-seriously-addressed Palestine issue and the never-fulfilled promise of a Palestinian state festered and burst on October 7, 2023. And the world has never been the same. And just as the neocons talked bush into invading Iraq, Syria has been in Israel’s crosshairs. The fall of the House of Assad was, in great measure, brought on by their tyranny and brutality – thus adding yet another act to the ongoing sardonic drama called the Middle East. And in the shuffle, Palestine will be completely wiped off the map.
In 1917, the Brits and the French planted vile colonial seeds, the bitter fruit of which have become seasonal harvests of never-ending wars. That the Machiavellian Brit and the French schemed is a given; that it was only a matter of time for Assad to fall is also given; that, like Afghanistan post Russia’s withdrawal, the Islamists will take over is a strong given; that UAE, Turkey, Israel, and the US are complicit in this uprising is also given; that Netanyahu’s designs for a new Middle East, with Biden’s (US and EU) blessings, is a given (including Blinken, Hochstein, Fine, and all their neocon buddies at State) is a given; that, because the Sunni theocrats of the Gulf cannot stand the Alawites of Syria is a given – hence their support for the rebels; that the secular Iraqi, Libyan, and Syrian regimes have been in the crosshairs of Israel, the US, and the Gulf despots is a given (Hillary on Libya: “We came, we saw, he died”; that Arab leaders with megalomaniac tendencies fight/fought hard to hold on to power (hence their demise) is given. That Biden’s judgment is impaired because of cognitive dissonance is a strong likely given.
The Gulf despots are not immune; they, too, will be engulfed in the same fire (they helped start) and fervor that is blazing through Syria.
One of the most chilling movie scenes I’ve ever witnessed is from Zorba the Greek. A dying woman is surrounded by a roomful of her relatives and friends. Every time she appears to be taking her last breath, the black-clad women rise in unison, only to be seated again. After a long wait, and as soon as the woman gives up the ghost, all civility and piety give way to scrambling around and the pilfering of her belongings from her dresser, nightstand, and closet.
Counterpunch for more
Syrians Are Celebrating Fall of Assad, Even as “the Bigger Picture Is Grim”: Scholar Bassam Haddad
DEMOCRACY NOW
The fall of the Assad family’s 50-year regime in Syria brings with it “many more questions than answers,” says the executive director of the Arab Studies Institute, Bassam Haddad. While the regional and global implications are “not good,” as Israel in particular is celebrating the loss of Assad’s material support for Palestinian and Lebanese armed resistance, Haddad says the immediate relief of those suffering under Assad’s totalitarian regime should not be ignored or invisibilized. Haddad also discusses the political prospects for the rebel forces led by the group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which he says will likely form a coalition with other groups as the future of Syria is determined in the coming days and weeks.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, as we continue to look at how the Assad family has lost control of Syria after more than half a century of brutal dictatorship, following a rapid advance of rebel fighters. Today, U.N. Security Council will hold an emergency meeting on Syria. The U.N. Syrian envoy, Geir Pedersen, said an inclusive transitional government is needed to restore a unified Syria.
GEIR PEDERSEN: All armed actors on the ground maintain good conduct, law and order, protect civilians and preserve public institutions. Let me urge all Syrians to prioritize dialogue, unity and respect for international humanitarian law and human rights as they seek to rebuild their society.
AMY GOODMAN: Israel responded to the Syrian uprising by invading and seizing parts of Syria’s Golan Heights in violation of a 1974 agreement with the Syrian government. Israel also bombed a number of areas, including a Syrian air base and weapons depots. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria was a “direct result” of Israel’s military campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: [translated] This is a historic day in the history of the Middle East. Assad’s regime is a central link in Iran’s Axis of Evil. This regime has fallen. This is a direct result of the blows we inflicted on Iran and Hezbollah, the main supporters of the Assad regime. This created a chain reaction throughout the Middle East.
AMY GOODMAN: Meanwhile, the United States carried out dozens of airstrikes inside Syria targeting areas held by the Islamic State. And in northern Syria, Turkish-backed armed groups have seized the city of Manbij, which had been controlled by U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish forces.
For more, we go to Philadelphia, where we’re joined by Bassam Haddad, associate professor at George Mason University, author of Business Networks in Syria: The Political Economy of Authoritarian Resilience. He’s the co-founder and editor of the Jadaliyya ezine and is executive director of the Arab Studies Institute at George Mason University. His forthcoming book, Roots, Dynamics, and Transformation of the Syrian Uprising.
Professor Haddad, first, your response to what took place this weekend?
BASSAM HADDAD: Thank you, Amy. It’s good to be with you again.
The first thing I’d like to say is that there are so many more questions than answers, so it’s important — especially today, so it’s important to keep that in mind as we go along. I would like to be analytical, but there is no way to avoid the importance and the value of watching what happened and what it means, the collapse of the regime after 54 years — or 71, if you want to consider the Ba’athist rule — what it means to ordinary Syrians who have actually been living under this regime for so many decades.
It is a moment that if you look at all the news, that cannot be overlooked and cannot be trumped by analysis of the bigger picture at this very moment, although the bigger picture is grim, is very problematic, and it’s really important for us to get to it, and I hope we can get to it today. But it is not something that we could underestimate, given the brutality of the regime, not least its lack of ability completely to govern in the past several years, at least after 2019, 2020, and its inability to provide the infrastructure, social services and the basic needs for its people, which actually did play a role in the very rapid march of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham into all of the major cities of Syria.
AMY GOODMAN: Explain HTS, its history, and Julani, its leader, and what you’re most concerned about right now.
Democracy Now for more
Turkish-backed Islamists attack Kurdish forces after Syria regime’s collapse
by BARIS DEMIR
The 13-year imperialist-backed regime-change war against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who was supported by Russia and Iran, ended with the collapse of his regime in a matter of days. Now the imperialist states and regional powers, led by the US and its proxies in the country, are calculating how to carve up Syria.
Turkey, which controls several provinces in northwestern Syria, has intervened both by directly supporting the Syrian National Army (SNA), the successor to the former Free Syrian Army (FSA), and by backing the al-Qaeda-linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), despite recognising it as a terrorist organisation.
On Saturday, President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an did not hide his delight as HTS advanced towards Damascus, saying, “Idlib, Hama, Homs, the target is of course Damascus. This march of the opposition continues. We are following it both through intelligence and through the media. Of course we hope that this march in Syria will continue without any accidents.”
In the same speech, Erdo?an said, “We had made an appeal to Assad: ‘Let’s meet and determine the future of Syria together.’ Unfortunately, we could not get a positive response from Assad.” He added, “These troubled marches going on in the region as a whole are not what we desire, our hearts do not want this. Unfortunately, the region is in trouble.”
These words come from the main regional player in NATO’s war for regime-change in Syria. Erdo?an’s concern is that US-backed Kurdish nationalist forces are one of the main forces in Syria and that the conflict could be revived against the interests of the Turkish ruling class. The jihadist takeover of Damascus and the Israeli offensive in Syria, in the midst of the Zionist regime’s genocide against the Palestinians and its aggression against Iran, have increased this possibility.
Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Monday: “A new era has begun in Syria. We must now focus on the future. We want to see a Syria where different ethnic and religious groups live in peace with an inclusive understanding of governance. We want to see a new Syria that has good relations with its neighbours and brings peace and stability to its region.”
Özgür Özel, leader of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), who on Saturday called for dialogue with Assad, later joined the chorus: “We call on all friends of Syria to support the establishment of a transitional government representative of all Syrians, followed by a democratic regime based on human rights and the rule of law, in order to avoid repeating the mistakes of Iraq and Libya,” Özel wrote on X.
These statements are full of hypocrisy. The Turkish government and ruling class, together with its imperialist allies in NATO, are among the leading perpetrators of the war for regime-change in Syria, which has led to the death of hundreds of thousands, the displacement of millions and the destruction of the country’s infrastructure.
World Socialist Web Site for more
Al-Qaeda-linked ‘rebels’ in Syria say they ‘love Israel’. USA gave them billions in weapons & support
by BEN NORTON
The US spent billions over years arming and training militants in Syria, many linked to Al-Qaeda and ISIS. The extremist “rebels” who took over the country told the Israeli media they “love Israel”
The United States spent billions over years arming and training militants in Syria, many linked to Al-Qaeda and ISIS.
Current US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan admitted back in 2012 that “AQ [Al-Qaeda] is on our side in Syria”.
In December 2024, armed extremists overthrew the Syrian government and seized power in the capital Damascus, in an operation sponsored by NATO member Turkey.
This assault was led by a rebranded Al-Qaeda militia that espouses a fanatical Salafi-jihadist ideology.
Some of the Al-Qaeda-linked “rebels” who now rule Syria told the Israeli media that they “love Israel”. They vowed to establish a new pro-Western regime in the country.
Israel has for years given weapons and other forms of support to extremist “rebels” in Syria, including Al-Qaeda. They successfully toppled the government of President Bashar al-Assad, who had refused to recognize Israel and had provided military aid to resistance groups in the region.
Rebranded Al-Qaeda takes over Syria
The Salafi-jihadist militants who seized Syria’s second-biggest city Aleppo in late November, and subsequently took over Damascus on December 8, were portrayed sympathetically in Western media as “rebels”, but they were led by rebranded Al-Qaeda.
The main armed group that conquered Syria is called Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which emerged out of the country’s Al-Qaeda affiliate, Jabhat al-Nusra (also known as the Nusra Front). This was previously the largest branch of Al-Qaeda in the world.
HTS superficially distanced itself from Al-Qaeda as part of a Western-backed public relations campaign to depict itself as more “moderate”. Neoconservative think tanks in Washington have whitewashed HTS leaders as “diversity-friendly jihadists”, but they still maintain the same fascist ideology.
In fact, despite this cynical rebranding effort, the US government officially recognized HTS as a terrorist organization in 2018, adding the extremist group to its previous designation of Jabhat al-Nusra.
Terrorist designations like this, nevertheless, have not stopped the US and its allies in Israel, Turkey, and the Gulf monarchies from providing support to Al-Qaeda-linked groups in Syria.
HTS had previously established a de facto government in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province, where it ruled with an iron fist, with direct assistance from NATO member Turkey.
The rebranded Al-Qaeda militia used Idlib as its base of operations to launch the assault on neighboring Aleppo in November 2024. Major French media outlet AFP reported that Syrian “opposition sources in touch with Turkish intelligence said Turkey had given a green light to the offensive”.
After taking Aleppo, the extremists moved south and captured the capital, overthrowing the government.
Israel’s far-right Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took credit for the victory of the rebranded Al-Qaeda death squad.
Netanyahu proudly stated that the fall of Assad was “a direct result of the blows we have inflicted on Iran and Hezbollah”.
Geopolitical Economy for more
“Why Are We Doing Netanyahu’s Bidding?” Jeffrey Sachs On Syria, Assad & Putin
Professor Jeffrey Sachs, having become a staple of the disruptive discourse that is so valued on Uncensored, joins Piers Morgan yet again for a one-to-one interview on the state of the world. The most shocking development over recent days has been the rapid advance of Syrian rebel troops and their capture of the City of Aleppo. Sachs tries to explain that the conflict is extremely complicated, but that the main culprit is none other than Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He argues that Netanyahu has managed to drag the US military into wars against Israel’s adversaries, and that the fighting in Syria is just one part of his ongoing strategy. In Sachs’ mind, the world would be a better place if America just didn’t get involved.
Gulf monarchies scramble in Syria as ghosts of the Arab Spring return
by SEAN MATHEWS
UAE ‘livid’ as US backchannels to Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham through Turkey while Egypt and others urge US caution on accepting group
Gulf states who spent years trying to crush Islamic political movements viewed as a threat to their rule are now reconciling, potentially working with a government in Syria headed by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) that is backed by rival Turkey and courting the US.
Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt have been caught off guard by what one Egyptian diplomat characterised to Middle East Eye as the “quick rebranding” of HTS, a former al-Qaeda affiliate.
The UAE has also been unnerved by the US’s maneuvering to open backchannels of communication to HTS via Turkey, according to a senior western official.
MEE spoke with a senior western official, one Egyptian diplomat, and a Gulf official working on Syria to discuss sensitive diplomatic discussions as Syria’s transitional government takes shape.
Before HTS spearheaded a rapid offensive to take Damascus, the UAE was brokering talks between the government of Bashar al-Assad and the US. The UAE wanted to strike a grand bargain to keep the Assad family in power and facilitate relief from US sanctions in return for Assad closing Iranian arms supply lines.
“The Emiratis are livid,” a senior western official working on Syria told MEE. “The Americans are running to the Turks. The UAE invested so much in Assad and are empty-handed.”
The brewing distrust carries similarities to the time after the 2011 Arab Spring, when Saudi Arabia and the UAE opposed popular demonstrations against Middle Eastern autocrats and accused Turkey and Qatar of backing the Muslim Brotherhood.
“Rulers already paranoid about Muslim Brotherhood-type Islamists will suddenly need to deal with something that’s like the Muslim Brotherhood on steroids, and also just way more dangerous and unpredictable,” Aron Lund, a Syria expert at Century International, told MEE.
In recent years, leaders in the Middle East who found themselves on opposite sides of proxy wars in places like Libya sought to patch up ties. Saudi Arabia has moved closer to Qatar, but Doha’s relations with Abu Dhabi, while friendlier than during the latter’s blockade, remain strained.
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi, who ousted Egypt’s democratically elected Muslim Brotherhood president, Mohammad Morsi, met twice with Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan in 2024.
Erdogan backed Morsi and famously declared, “I will never talk to someone like him,” referring to Sisi.
The fragile detente between Sisi and Erdogan could be tested now that HTS controls Damascus, a cultural and former economic hub of the Arab world.
“Turkey’s power is on the rise, clearly,” the Egyptian diplomat told MEE. “And HTS is more Muslim than the Muslim Brotherhood dreamed of being. The Muslim Brotherhood could flourish in Syria.”
Only game in town
With Saudi Arabia and the UAE’s strategy of rehabilitating Assad now over, analysts say the Gulf states have few options but to engage HTS and accommodate Turkey’s influence.
HTS’s political affairs office reportedly met with the ambassadors of Egypt, the UAE, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia on Tuesday.
Middle East Eye for more