The foreign policy story of 2024: The Fall of Assad in pictures

Blog: Responsible Statecraft

Open Access

Abstract

The surprise attack on Bashar Assad's Syrian strongholds in December led to an almost immediate collapse of his family's dynasty and his dictatorship. This, after the Middle East had already been rocked by Israeli wars against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. As of December, over 45,000 Palestinians in Gaza and over 4,000 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, have been killed and millions displaced.HTS (Hayaat Tahrir Al Sham) is the new caretaker government in Syria. Backed by Turkey they claim to want an inclusive government in Syria, for Syrians.Assad's fall in December was heralded by Sunni Syrians, many of whom had been victims of Assad's brutality and displaced in the country's Civil War, which began in 2011 after Arab Spring related uprisings.External forces are at work all over this conflict. Turkey, Israel, the United States — news reports after Assad's fall suggested that even Ukraine had a hand in sending HTS drones for the battlefield.The fate of the Kurdish independence movement, which has been backed by the U.S., is at the end of the year unknown. The Turks want to extinguish it, while the Kurdish Syrian Defense Forces have held on to valuable, oil rich territory in the northeast of Syria and are not likely to go easily. There are also 2,000 U.S. troops in the region and the U.S. has been engaging in airstrikes inside the country, reportedly against ISIS.The world watches as HTS claims power and wants the U.S. terror designation and sanctions lifted in order to begin rebuilding the country after more than a decade of war. Despite the calls by new leader Ahmad al-Sharaa, who leads HTS, for moderation and amnesty, reports in the waning days of 2024 tell of revenge crimes and raids by militias against Assadists in villages and towns. Meanwhile, al-Sharaa has said it may take up to four years for new elections in Syria.