Syria is a beautiful country, destroyed by decades of exploitation by the Assad regime, and its allies, Russia, Iran, and Iranian-backed Hezbollah. Since the late 2010 uprising against the Assad regime, about half a million Syrians have been murdered. The Assad regime was so important to the leadership of the Islamic Republic of Iran that rather than simply sacrificing the liability that was Bashar al Assad — son of longtime Syrian tyrant Hafez al Assad — and installing a different leader and aiming for reconciliation, Tehran backed Assad to the end, with hundreds of thousands dead, millions of refugees, and heavy costs to the regime and its proxies.
Assad, who now lives under the protection of Vladimir Putin with his stolen billions, is a member of the minority Alawite sect (about 10 percent of Syria), an offshoot of Shiism that Sunni Muslims view as apostasy. The vast majority of Syrians are Sunni, though the country also has a sizable Muslim Kurdish and Druze minority, as well as a shrinking Christian minority and a handful of Jews.
How did Assad lose power? Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), once an al Qaeda affiliate known as the Nusra Front, headed by a man now known as Ahmad al Sharaa, but once known as Abu Muhammad al Jolani, and several other militias marched on Damascus, and took the nation on December 7, 2024. The critical question today is whether HTS and its shock troops have truly moderated their extremist Islamist views, and whether al Sharaa is the proper leader in which to repose hope for the future of Syria.
Read more in the WTH Substack here.