Patrick Cockburn writes that the fall of Assad means “success for the U.S., Israel and Turkey. … [A] victory for the Sunni Arab majority over the Muslim and non-Muslim minorities. … Bad news for the Kurds” given Turkey’s role in backing Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and other al Qaeda offshoots.
On Friday, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said: “The target is Damascus. … I would say we hope for this advance to continue without any issues.”
Vijay Prashad writes in “10 points on the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s Syria“: “The Syrian state had been devastated by the war which began 2011, and then by the sanctions placed on the country by the United States and its allies. The Syrian Arab Army (the official state army) had never fully recovered in the aftermath of the major fighting and was incapable of taking back the main cities of Hama, Homs, and Aleppo.
“The Israeli bombardment of Syrian military facilities had weakened the Syrian armed forces’ logistical and ordinance capabilities. These attacks had been sustained and painful for the Syrian armed forces…. The nearly three years of conflict in Ukraine had certainly denied Syria the ability to call upon further Russian assistance for the protection of Damascus or for the Russian naval base in Latakia.” Prashad also warned: “Syria will face a Libyan future,” referring to the horrible aftermath of the U.S. regime change operation in that Arab country.
The Times of Israel reports: “Netanyahu claims credit for starting ‘historic’ process that led to fall of Assad regime.” Israel is bombing and moving into Syria. In October, Middle East Monitor reported on statements by the Israeli finance minister: “Smotrich: Israel’s future is ‘to expand to Damascus.’”
Jeremy Scahill reports on a statement from Hamas congratulating “the brotherly Syrian people on their success in achieving their aspirations for freedom and justice.”
See accuracy.org news release from February: “Why Does the U.S. Have Troops in Syria and Iraq?” See from 2017: “How the U.S. Armed al Qaeda in Syria.”
The following are available for a limited number of interviews:
MOHAMAD BAZZI, mohamad.bazzi@nyu.edu, @BazziNYU
Bazzi is director of the Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies, and a journalism professor at New York University. He highlights a thread by Syrian American scholar Bassam Haddad which voices concerns about a post-Assad Syria while not erasing the agency of Syrians. He notes: “Israel is invading Syria, beyond parts of the Golan Heights that Israel has illegally occupied (since 1967) under international law.”
KEVORK ALMASSIAN, kevork.almassian87@gmail.com, @KevorkAlmassian
Almassian is host of Syriana Analysis and was one of the earliest analysts reporting on the advance of HTS. He was just interviewed by Rachel Blevins: “‘The Axis of Resistance is Over’ Syria in a New Reality After Assad Overthrow.” He has especially highlighted the role of Erdogan.
JENNIFER LOEWENSTEIN, sarinj111@gmail.com
Loewenstein is former associate director of Middle Eastern Studies and senior lecturer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and has lived in and reported extensively on the Mideast.