On Sunday, the Assad family dictatorship, which had governed Syria for over 50 years, finally collapsed.
Rebel forces claimed control of Damascus, and President Bashar al-Assad fled the country.
The events elicited wild celebrations among the long-repressed population, but they also prompted concerns about the potentially repercussions on the Middle East in the medium and long terms.
The capital was inundated with rebel forces overnight, just a bit over a week after they initiated a campaign that swiftly traversed Syria’s largest cities.
On Sunday, Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani, the leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, one of the largest rebel factions that mounted the offensive against Assad, arrived in Damascus within hours.
The Russian state news agency TASS reported on Sunday that Assad and his family were granted political asylum in Russia after traveling there.
On Sunday, Israel announced that it had deployed its military to seize the buffer zone between Israel and Syria in the Golan Heights as the events swiftly unfolded.
The country cited the necessity of the action to protect its border. Israel’s military subsequently issued an unusual warning to residents of villages and municipalities in southern Syria, instructing them to remain in their homes until further notice.
Assad fled in the early hours of Sunday local time.
On Sunday, the Russian foreign ministry announced that he had resigned and departed the country.
The ministry also stated that Moscow maintains communication with all Syrian opposition organizations.
The Syrian government had endured over a decade of economic crisis and civil war; however, its forces were ultimately defeated by the swift advances of a variety of Islamist insurgent groups that were closing in from the north, south, and east.
The conflict was the most recent and dramatic development in a series of interconnected conflicts that have engulfed the Middle East for over a year.
These conflicts have been ongoing since Hamas’s attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, which ignited the war in the Gaza Strip and subsequently spread to Lebanon and Iran.
Russia and Iran-backed Hezbollah, two critical sponsors whose militaries had maintained the Assad family in power, were weakened by the wars in Ukraine and Lebanon, which contributed to the Assads’ downfall.
Iran, Russia, Turkey, Israel, Arab governments, and the United States—which maintains a contingent of at least 900 soldiers in the region—are all closely monitoring the situation, as they are apprehensive that the strategic Middle East nation’s instability could jeopardize their own interests.
There is now apprehension that the absence of any coherent succession planning in the event of could result in a perilous vacuum that could have a ripple effect on neighboring countries.
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, initiated the campaign that ultimately resulted in the overthrow of the Assad regime.
Jawlani, the group’s leader, had previously maintained deep connections to both al Qaeda and the barbarous Islamic State.
Jawlani has allegedly severed those connections and has committed to safeguarding Syria’s religious and ethnic diversity; however, it is uncertain to what extent his transformation is sincere.
Syria is a small, impoverished nation that has been instrumental in the interconnected conflicts of the region.
It served as a conduit for the delivery of weaponry to Hezbollah and extended Iran’s influence to the borders of Israel. It also accumulated—and employed—chemical weapons, which are now at risk of falling into the hands of Jihadists.
In addition the country is also home to a contingent of American troops that are stationed in the nation’s eastern desert area. The hours after the fall of Assad, in addition to the actions of the Islamist rebels also saw major action from both the United States and Israel. With the former carrying out a large number of airstrikes on suspected ISIS positions in an attempt to prevent the group from exploiting the chaos currently gripping the country and the latter moving a large number of forces across the border in order to grab strategic positions in the Golan heights area before the rebels were able to exploit them for themselves.
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