Assad Was Disengaging From Iran, but His Next Steps Are Unclear In Damascus, it has recently felt like change was afoot, and after the fall of Aleppo anything could happen Rasha Elass is Editorial Director at New Lines magazineDecember 3, 2024 No one expected the swift rebel takeover of Aleppo when I was visiting Damascus last month, though almost everyone I met there seemed to think that “something was cooking.” And during my short sojourn, I felt that, too. For starters, nothing about life in Damascus has felt coherent or sustainable since relative quiet befell the country in 2020. Inflation is so high that I found myself having to help relatives not so much carry groceries from the store, but carry the heavy bags of cash required for them to run their daily lives. The Syrian lira trades at about 1.5 million for every 100 U.S. dollars, and a trip to the food market can cost almost as much as a trip to the supermarket in the U.S. — except in Syria the average salary of a government employee, say a judge, is barely $40 per month. The wealth disparity has been sending grandmothers and children dumpster diving, while a restaurant that serves sushi can be packed with patrons ordering more food than they can eat.

Assad’s Plan To Keep Syria Out of the War in Gaza Amid Israel’s conflict with Hamas and its allies, Damascus has taken a series of steady steps to mend ties with its former enemies Hassan Hassan is Founder and Editor in Chief of New Lines magazineSeptember 27, 2024 September last year, an event on the Syrian border signaled the possibility of Iranian-backed forces opening a new front against Israel in Syria — yet, in a surprising turn, that front has remained quiet for the past year during the war in Gaza. Israeli tanks responded to Syrian troop deployments by striking two military structures inside Syria. Israeli authorities claimed the structures had been built in a demilitarized border zone that was established by a 1974 agreement between the two countries. This attack went largely unnoticed at the time, but in hindsight it is intriguing for two main reasons. First, Israel did not respond in the same way to similar military reinforcements in 2011, when the Syrian military deployed troops, airplanes and tanks close to the Israeli border. At a 1974 summit in Geneva, the two countries agreed on a demilitarized “area of separation” along the border, and a further “area of limitation” within 25 kilometers in either direction, restricting military strength in the zone to small, lightly armed forces. The 2011 Syrian deployment, intended to quell a nascent uprising, encompassed l

Al-Assad’s Strategy to Avoid Becoming a Puppet of Russia and Iran by Abdullah Al-Ghadhawi / March 11, 2021 / State Resilience & Fragility⠀/Authoritarianism / Recent moves by Bashar al-Assad in the security sphere show the embattled Syrian president still has cards to play to preserve his power, despite having sacrificed much influence to Iran and Russia to secure his regime’s survival in the civil war. Despite everything being said about the Syrian president’s weakness and inability to manage the country alone, he is still holding on to power despite the encroachment of his Russian and Iranian allies and, as his late father did, exploiting the regime’s secret weapon: the security services and their sectarian structure. This has proven to be the key to preserving the core of the regime and ensuring al-Assad’s survival...

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Christiane Amanpour (CNN) 2005 interview with Assad Aired October 13, 2005 - 23:30 ET https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GcP1Gb_1Jc AMANPOUR: Mr. President, you know the rhetoric of regime change is headed towards you, from the United States. They are actively looking for a new Syrian leader. They are granting visas and visit to Syrian opposition politicians. They're talking about isolating you, diplomatically, then perhaps a coup d'etat or your regime crumbling. What are you thinking about that? AL-ASSAD: I feel very confident, for one reason, because I was made in Syria. I wasn't made in the United States. So I'm not worried. This is a Syrian decisions. It should be made by the Syrian people, nobody else in this world. AMANPOUR: What would happen, do you think, if there was a alternative to you? Who is the alternative to you? AL-ASSAD: It could be any Syrian. Any national Syrian, and we have a lot. I'm not the only person who is eligible to be president. We have a lot of Syrians. So we don't have any problem about that. But a no Syrian would be allowed to be president if he is made anywhere outside out borders. This is a Syrian principle.

THE BEST OF FISK 6 December 1993: Anti-Soviet warrior puts his army on the road to peace Robert Fisk is the first western journalist to interview Osama bin Laden, ‘the Saudi businessman’ overseeing large-scale building work in Sudan https://www.the-independent.com/news/long_reads/robert-fisk-osama-bin-laden-interview-sudan-1993-b1562374.html ———————- Osama bin Laden sat in his gold-fringed robe, guarded by the loyal Arab mujahedin who fought alongside him in Afghanistan. Bearded, taciturn figures – unarmed, but never more than a few yards from the man who recruited them, trained them and then dispatched them to destroy the Soviet army – they watched unsmiling as the Sudanese villagers of Almatig lined up to thank the Saudi businessman who is about to complete the highway linking their homes to Khartoum for the first time in history. With his high cheekbones, narrow eyes and long brown robe, Mr bin Laden looks every inch the mountain warrior of mujahedin legend. Chadored children danced in front of him, preachers acknowledged his wisdom. “We have been waiting for this road through all the revolutions in Sudan,” a sheikh said. “We waited until we had given up on everybody – and then Osama bin Laden came along.”

US announces air strikes on ISIL targets in Syria after al-Assad’s fall US Central Command says it struck more than 75 targets to ensure armed group does not exploit end of Syrian leader’s rule. 9 Dec 2024 The United States says it has carried out dozens of air strikes on ISIL (ISIS) targets in Syria following the stunning collapse of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government. The US Central Command (CENTCOM) said on Sunday that it had struck more than 75 targets, including ISIL (ISIS) leaders, operatives and camps, to ensure that the armed group does not take advantage of the end of al-Assad’s rule.

Israel strikes Syria 480 times and seizes territory as Netanyahu pledges to change face of the Middle East https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/10/middleeast/israel-syria-assad-strikes-intl/index.html