Deposed Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and his wife Asma are currently in Russia (file photo)
BBC NEWS | Published December 14, 2024
When Bashar al-Assad was toppled on Sunday, it turned the page on not only his 24-year presidency but on more than 50 years of his family ruling Syria.
Before Assad took office in 2000, his late father Hafez was president for three decades.
Now, with rebels led by the Islamist militant group Hayat Tahrir-al Sham (HTS) forming a transitional government, the future of the deposed president, his wife and their three children is uncertain.
They are now in Russia, where they have been offered asylum, but what lies ahead for them?
Why did Assad flee to Russia?
Russia was a staunch ally of Assad during Syria’s civil war and has two key military bases in the Middle Eastern country.
In 2015, Russia launched an air campaign in support of Assad that turned the tide of the war in the government’s favour.
A UK-based monitoring group reported that more than more than 21,000 people, including 8,700 civilians, were killed in Russian military operations over the following nine years.
However, distracted by its war in Ukraine, Russia was either unwilling or unable to help Assad’s government stop the rebel’s lightning offensive after it began in late November.
Hours after rebel forces seized control of Damascus, it was reported by Russian state media that Assad and his family had arrived in Moscow and that they would be granted asylum on “humanitarian grounds”.
But when Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was asked about Assad’s whereabouts and asylum claim by reporters on Monday, he said: “I have nothing to tell you… right now. Of course, such a decision [on granting asylum] cannot be made without the head of state. It is his decision.”
READ FULL ARTICLE
SOURCE: www.bbc.com
RELATED: The Assad regime falls. What happens now?
A man holds Syrian opposition flags as he celebrates after Syria’s army command notified officers on Sunday that President Bashar al-Assad’s 24-year authoritarian rule has ended, a Syrian officer who was informed of the move told Reuters, following a rapid rebel offensive that took the world by surprise, in Aleppo, Syria December 8, 2024. (REUTERS/Karam al-Masri)
BROOKINGS | Published December 14, 2024
On December 8, 2024, armed rebels took the Syrian city of Damascus, forcing long-time ruler President Bashar al-Assad to flee the country. The move comes after 13 years of civil war and brings the iron-clad rule of the Assad regime effectively to a close. Below, Brookings experts break down what this all means, what happens now, and the questions that remain.
Syria’s jubilation resonates with Iraqis
Of all people, Iraqis understand the jubilation of Syrians today at the toppling of the brutal and decades-long Assad dictatorship. Similar scenes, though with the backdrop of occupation, played out across Iraq over two decades ago when another brutal Baathist dictator, Saddam Hussein, was deposed. At the same time, Iraqis are cautious of what may happen next, as the face of the armed Syrian opposition today is a man who had engaged in terrorism in Iraq as a member of al-Qaida and, later, the Islamic State. Iraq’s Shia armed groups who had once helped prop up Bashar al-Assad, at the behest of Iran, have now abandoned him, and the Iraqi government has withdrawn its diplomats from their embassy in Damascus and turned its focus inwards, seeking to preserve internal stability.
While many analysts have used Iraq as only a cautionary tale for Syria’s future, that argument both infantilizes Syrians and ignores the positive lessons that Iraq can impart. Both countries were under the thumb of Baathism for decades, suffered external interventions, and have diverse populations. For one, Syria can learn from Iraq’s successful Kurdistan region model, which has granted Iraqi Kurds a large degree of autonomy and recognized their language and culture and their integral role in the federal government. Iraq, too, has warnings: to not ignore transitional justice, to not rush the writing of the new constitution, and to not employ extreme and punitive de-Baathification.
READ FULL ARTICLE
SOURCE: www.brookings.edu
Be the first to comment