After 24 years in power, 13 with his country in a state of civil war, the government of Syria’s Bashar al Assad has collapsed.
The Syrian Ba’ath Party leader and president reportedly fled for Moscow on Dec. 8, after a Sunni Islamist offensive surrounded the Syrian capital city of Damascus.
Assad’s government forces, known as the Syrian Arab Army (SAA), had fought against multiple factions since 2011, vying to keep him in power. The fighting had died down in recent years, but flared up dramatically on Nov. 27, when insurgent forces launched a surprise attack on Aleppo, in Syria’s northwest.
Within a matter of days, SAA forces abandoned Aleppo, and the insurgent advance continued to press south toward Damascus.
Hayʼat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS)—a Sunni Islamist faction designated as a terrorist organization by multiple countries, including the United States and Russia—has been the main force behind the insurgent offensive on Damascus. HTS evolved from Jabhat al-Nusra, which was the Syrian wing of al-Qaeda.
Assad’s SAA forces retreated from Aleppo on Nov. 30. By Dec. 4, SAA forces gave way to the insurgents yet again, allowing them to take Hama. The insurgent advanced continued south through Homs, and reached the outskirts of Damascus on Dec. 7.
Russian and Iranian forces, which had supported Assad throughout the Syrian civil war, stepped aside as the insurgents rushed toward the capital city.
Assad reportedly fled the country on Dec. 8. On Dec. 9, the Kremlin announced Russia granted Assad asylum.
The rapid collapse of the Assad government ended his more than 20-year rule, which began in 2000. Before him, Assad’s father, Hafez al-Assad, had held power since 1971.
After sweeping into Damascus, HTS leader Ahmad al-Sharaa—also known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani—rallied with his supporters in the Umayyad Mosque and declared Assad’s ouster “a victory for the Islamic nation.”
US Welcomes Assad’s Fall
The United States had opposed Assad and had assisted opposition factions like the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) throughout the 13-year Syrian civil war. While HTS forces pressed on Damascus, President Joe Biden’s administration avoided signaling either support or opposition for their actions.
In a Dec. 1 interview with CNN, White House national security advisor Jake Sullivan reiterated the U.S. position that HTS is a terrorist organization,
“So, we have real concerns about the designs and objectives of that organization,” Sullivan continued. “At the same time, of course, we don’t cry over the fact that the Assad government, backed by Russia, Iran and Hezbollah, are facing certain kinds of pressure.”
Biden celebrated Assad’s ouster in a Dec. 8 White House address.
“At long last the Assad regime has fallen,” Biden said. “This regime brutalized and tortured and killed literally hundreds of thousands of innocent Syrians. The fall of the regime is a fundamental act of justice.”
President-elect Donald Trump also welcomed Assad’s ouster, and positioned the moment as an opportunity to reach a cease-fire in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.
“Assad is gone. He has fled his country. His protector, Russia, Russia, Russia, led by Vladimir Putin, was not interested in protecting him any longer. There was no reason for Russia to be there in the first place,” Trump said.
The president-elect said Syria’s two main foreign backers, Russia and Iran, have both been weakened by separate conflicts; Russia in Ukraine, and Iran in other areas of the Middle East as Iran and its regional partners have traded blows with Israeli forces over the past year. Trump said Ukraine has also seen heavy losses in the war, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is ready to make a deal.
“There should be an immediate ceasefire and negotiations should begin,” Trump continued.
Israel Expands Golan Heights Holdings
While HTS led the main offensive over the last week and a half, other factions in the multi-sided conflict also began seizing new territory throughout Syria.
As HTS marched down from north of Damascus, opposition forces south of Damascus also went on the march. Pro-Assad SAA forces positioned throughout the southwest Lebanon abandoned their posts.
As the Syrian government gave up ground around the Golan Heights this week, Israeli forces began to push forward, into Syrian territory.
The Golan Heights has been a disputed territory for decades. Israeli forces seized control over large sections of the Golan Heights during the 1967 war. The United Nations Security Council passed a resolution calling for Israel to return the Golan Heights to Syria, in exchange for a termination of hostilities between Israel and Syria. Despite this resolution, Israel has continued to retain control over broad sections of the Golan Heights, and Israel has conducted repeated strikes and raids inside Syria in the decades since.
The Israeli and Syrian governments reached an agreement in 1974, known as the Separation of Forces Agreement. The deal called Syria and Israel to halt hostilities by land, sea, or air. Israel has conducted numerous airstrikes on Syria over the years, but the 1974 agreement did succeed in freezing the direct fighting between Syria and Israel over the Golan Heights.
In remarks from the Golan Heights on Dec. 8, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared the 1974 Separation of Forces Agreement to be defunct.
“This agreement held for 50 years. Last night, it collapsed. The Syrian army abandoned its positions,” Netanyahu said. “We gave the Israeli army the order to take over these positions to ensure that no hostile force embeds itself right next to the border of Israel.”
The Israeli leader claimed this move would be a temporary measure “until a suitable arrangement is found.”
Netanyahu attributed Assad’s collapse, in part, to Israel’s war with Hezbollah.
Hezbollah—which the United States and Israel have designated a terrorist organization—has aligned with Assad throughout the Syrian Civil War. Israel had been fighting with Hezbollah in Lebanon since Oct. 8, 2023, but reached a cease-fire agreement last month to halt the fighting in Lebanon.The HTS offensive in Syria began within hours of the Lebanon cease-fire.
Some low-level fighting has continued throughout Lebanon since this cease-fire deal began, and Israeli forces had struck suspected Hezbollah sites in Syria in recent days.
The Russian government has called for a UN Security Council Meeting on Dec. 9, to discuss the changing situation in the Golan Heights.
“It is important to understand what is happening in the new circumstances around the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force in the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights (UNDOF),” Russian deputy UN representative Dmitry Polyansky said in a Dec. 8 press statement.
This article was originally published by FreeBase News and is reprinted with permission.
