After Assad fled to Russia, Moscow opened the door for asylum and humanitarian protection to many Syrians, including former military members. Yet their journeys north are very different.
Tag: Bashar al-Assad
Since the fall of Bashar al-Assad, the language of authority has changed in Syria. Yet these new titles (“Emir,” “Branch Emir” or “Sheikh of the group”) do little for the core demands for which Syrians rose up: freedom, dignity and justice.
In Frankfurt, a recent trial opened the door to holding accountable those who thought themselves safe from the law by sneaking out of Syria. Meanwhile, back in Damascus, justice that is geographically closer to the crimes seems impossible to hope for.
Sources say Hezbollah is in such dire financial shape, as Israel and Lebanon are successfully cutting off funding from Iran, it puts the organization at existential risk.
Just weeks after the massacres targeting the Alawite community, Druze populations are now being attacked by armed groups — threatening the fragile stability of Syria’s post-Assad transition.
For years, “Caesar,” who leaked photos providing evidence of the torture and killing of civilians by President Bashar al-Assad’s government, seemed like a legend or a symbol who transcended reality for Syrians. Now Assad is gone, and we know who Caesar is. So why are some now accusing Caesar of being responsible for starving Syrians and worsening their economic crisis?
Once a hub of commerce and industry in the Middle East, Syria’s means of production have been destroyed by years of conflict. The country’s new leaders are making economic recovery a priority. First, though, it must begin by lifting international sanctions.
Al-Sharaa has surprised many with his openness to dialogue after a past linked to al-Qaeda. He represents a complex model that embodies the transformation of Syria since the beginning of the revolution in 2011.
Despite her pleasant air and sense of fashion, the now former Syrian First Lady Asma al-Assad was bound to be tied to her husband’s fate. Born and raised in the UK, she was respected by some for openly battling cancer and later adored in China for her glamour. Still, she was largely despised at home for having helped cover her husband’s long list of alleged war crimes.
The unprecedented assassination of the head of the Russian army’s chemical weapons division is an act of war that is hard for Ukraine’s allies to defend. Still, Ukrainians can’t be faulted for fighting for the nation’s very existence, especially as the West shows signs of slowing down its support.
After meeting Bashar al-Assad, then heir to the Syrian dictatorship, then Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri said he feared for the country’s future.
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Worldcrunch Magazine #111— Next Syria
December 16 – December 22, 2024
The direction of Syria’s new rulers remains uncertain, but examples of transitions in Iraq, Egypt, Libya or Tunisia after the fall of their dictators highlight the pitfalls to avoid. Will Syria be able to escape them?
Since he fled in the cover of the night to Russia with his wife and three children, Bashar al-Assad’s entourage and extended family have expressed their anger and humiliation at his deception. He also betrayed his regional allies who went out of their way to protect his regime for years.
December 9 – December 15, 2024
The surprise attack by rebel groups on Syrian government forces in Aleppo has raised many questions since it coincided with the ceasefire deal in Lebanon between Hezbollah and Israel. With so many forces and interests around Syria, don’t expect the reignited conflict to end anytime soon.
Last month saw a sudden uptick in violence on Syrian territory, either carried out by Israel, or by the Assad government and its Russian and Iranian allies. Once again, innocent Syrians, including too many children, are paying the price.
The Arab front in favor of the Palestinian people is more feeble and ambiguous than ever, even as the people of Gaza are being killed by the thousands. Multiple factors explain this weakness, from fears of a repeat of the 2011 uprisings inside their own countries to longstanding competition with Iran.
As Israel celebrates the death of Hezbollah’s leader, Washington and Tehran both suddenly seem powerless, looking like spectators of an unraveling tragedy that is beyond their control. Yet, given its demographics and geography, Israel desperately needs allies.
July 22 – July 28, 2024
For decades Iran’s leaders have promoted the vision of martyrdom as a precept of the regime, but appear to have carefully weighed how much damage to try to inflict on Israel after its attack against its top military leaders in Syria on April 1. What does this say about the state and stability of the regime?
Recent changes in Syria’s security apparatus are yet another step in President Bashar al-Assad’s years-long effort to escape the shadow of his father and predecessor, Hafez al-Assad, more than two decades after his death.
Now in its third month, the Israel-Hamas war has led to an increase in Israeli strikes on Iranian posts in Syria. At the same time, the pace of drug smuggling from Syria to Jordan has increased, prompting the latter to launch airstrikes inside Syria.
Defying an ICC arrest warrant, Russian President Vladimir Putin is on a one-day foray to UAE and Saudi Arabia to display his role in shaping the geopolitical and energy landscape — and to make the world forget about the Ukraine war just a little bit more.
Two pressing factors have weighed on the Arab League to reintegrate the accused war criminal: refugees and narcotics. But it speaks to a larger weakness of the international community to see that justice is carried out.
The Arab League has readmitted Syria, ending the regime’s ten-year isolation. This is a defeat for the West — and an admission by the Arab states that there is no way around Assad.
Across the border from the epicenter in Turkey, the Syrian region of Idlib is home to millions of people displaced by the 12-year-long civil war. The victims there risk not getting assistance because of the interests of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, reminding the world of one of the great unresolved conflicts of our times.
In Turkey, resentment against Syrian refugees is growing. And President Erdogan – once their patron – is now busy seeking good relations with the man the Syrians fled, the dictator Bashar al-Assad.
A new round of comments from inside Iran’s leadership ranks reaffirms its intention to produce a nuclear bomb, a decades-long cat and mouse game between the regime and an ever cautious West that hasn’t seemed to change even as the Russia-Ukraine war brings in a new world order.
As close as the two countries may appear, for Russia, Iran is simply a pawn in its chess game with the West.
Nujeen Mustafa didn’t realize fleeing from Syria to Europe in a wheelchair would be considered extraordinary. Now in Germany, she has written a book about her journey.
The Syrian government’s recent tourism videos of beautiful scenery and nightlife look ludicrous to Westerners who know the brutal truth about Aleppo, but the West isn’t the intended audience for this publicity blitz.
Regular shelling from all sides has made it too dangerous for students to go to school in the Syrian city of Aleppo, so a group of volunteer teachers decided to open their own.
-Analysis- The “caliphate” of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi will not last. His self-proclaimed Islamic State (ISIS), announced two years ago, is on the defensive. It will vanish as quickly as the morning mist on the Euphrates River. But what about jihadism, Islamist terrorism, the wars in Iraq and Syria — all factors that feed this Middle […]
After gains by regime troops, with Russian air support, calm and nightlife have returned to the capital. And locals are back to betting on Assad’s survival.
Syria Deeply looks back at some of the history and evolution of the country’s revolutionary art over the past five years of war, including political graffiti, digital art and other mediums that have become part of the uprising’s language and culture.
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Russia’s Surprise Withdrawal From Syria
“Russia out of Syria,” the front page of Moscow-based daily Vedomosti reads, just hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s surprise announcement that Russian forces would withdraw from Syria. After yesterday’s unexpected announcement, a first group of warplanes has already left its Syrian base for Russia, the Defense Ministry said. “The main task now is to […]
The siege of Madaya began in July, but global pressure on the Syrian government to allow humanitarian access didn’t begin to build until nearly 30 people had died of starvation. Why did it take so long?
-Essay- NEW YORK — In searching for an image that could help to illustrate the dreadful, complex and totally out-of-control situation in Syria, I stumbled upon an article in the Marginal Revolution that compares the events in Syria to the civil war in the former Yugoslavia. Since Yugoslavia and Syria were both multinational countries, and […]
Monica Maggioni, head of Italy’s Rai news service, recounts her meeting this week with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad inside his private Damascus villa: “He looks nothing like the defeated leaders of this era.”