Assad regime toppled in Syria, Russia grants asylum to Assad

[Morphine Prince 109,712]

DAMASCUS, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Syrian rebels seized the capital Damascus unopposed on Sunday after a lightning advance that sent President Bashar al-Assad fleeing to Russia after a 13-year civil war and six decades of his family's autocratic rule.

In one of the biggest turning points for the Middle East in generations, the fall of Assad's government wiped out a bastion from which Iran and Russia exercised influence across the Arab world. Moscow gave him and his family asylum, Russian state media said.

His sudden overthrow, at the hands of a revolt partly backed by Turkey and with roots in jihadist Sunni Islam, limits Iran's ability to spread weapons to its allies and could cost Russia its Mediterranean naval base. It may pave the way for millions of refugees scattered for more than a decade in camps across Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan to finally return home.

For Syrians, it brought a sudden unexpected end to a war in deep freeze for years, with hundreds of thousands dead, cities pounded to dust and an economy hollowed out by global sanctions.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/syria-rebels-celebrate-captured-homs-set-sights-damascus-2024-12-07/

 

[Bronco 25,908]

Lets hope that what replaces it is better than what came before.

Not convinced.

[Lucas 31,236]

That's good news but as previous post says, let's hope Assad won't be replaced by someone worse... I'm happy for refugees who can get a little sense of peace after 13 years of war

[faysalaaa 5,341]

6 minutes ago, Bronco said:

Lets hope that what replaces it is better than what came before.

Not convinced.

They were tied to Alqaeda and ISIS, but im not sure how much? and they did not really condemn them even in recent interviews! They just distanced themselves and said they changed and welcome everyone.

They still want an Islamic rule, but that could mean anything, as alot of Muslim countries rule differently.

The Assad regime was insane though, its extremely brutal and scary, one of the worst in the Middle East, so anything is better than that.

[27monster27 15,916]

Sadly no side is truly clean in this war.

Also, remember that this was a (mostly) four sided civil war:

Assad Regime (Effectively dead now)

Rebels (The "main" anti-Assad faction)

SDF (A mix of Kurdish independence movements and far spread leftist groups from pro-Democracy to even anarchism)

Jihadist Groups (ISIS, Al-Qaeda, etc.)

Three sides still remain. ISIS actually never truly fell; in fact after the recent rebel offensive they started to become more active again in some of the SDF owned territory. Netanyahus atrocities against the UN in recent days lead me to believe that Israel could become an actor soon, but that remains to be seen.

[Bronco 25,908]

17 minutes ago, faysalaaa said:

They were tied to Alqaeda and ISIS, but im not sure how much? and they did not really condemn them even in recent interviews! They just distanced themselves and said they changed and welcome everyone.

They still want an Islamic rule, but that could mean anything, as alot of Muslim countries rule differently.

The Assad regime was insane though, its extremely brutal and scary, one of the worst in the Middle East, so anything is better than that.

Yeah I know HTS (I think that's the abrieviation) have links to al-qaeda but are trying to moderate at least publicly. 

My main concern is, that so many people are obviously happy today because the Assad regime has been toppled and there's no disputing the horrors of that family's time in power; but it is incredibly rare that the next stage goes smoothly. 
There's likely going to be continuing civil war between the rebel groups vying for power, unless they all agree to democratic elections etc which I'm not convinced will happen. Especially when one group could make a strong claim to having done a large chunk of the work and are likely to want to maintain their power, wealth etc. 

And those kinds of civil wars can be even more brutal & lawless than your standard "government vs rebel(s)" civil wars. 

[Bronco 25,908]

1 minute ago, 27monster27 said:

Netanyahus atrocities against the UN in recent days lead me to believe that Israel could become an actor soon, but that remains to be seen.

Yeah with Israel having pushed out of the Golan Heights into the demilitarized buffer zone, there is significant potential for a 3rd military front opening in the Middle East. Albeit the situations is complicated by the various states backing the multiple rebel groups etc. It's just all very messy. Especially as we don't know what next month will bring for American foreign policy - obviously they will support Israel in the Middle East, but to what extent will they be distracted by the ongoing situation in S.Korea which could potentially threaten US interests in the tri-security network Yoon opened between the US/SK/Japan remains to be seen.  

[faysalaaa 5,341]

8 minutes ago, Bronco said:

Yeah I know HTS (I think that's the abrieviation) have links to al-qaeda but are trying to moderate at least publicly. 

My main concern is, that so many people are obviously happy today because the Assad regime has been toppled and there's no disputing the horrors of that family's time in power; but it is incredibly rare that the next stage goes smoothly. 
There's likely going to be continuing civil war between the rebel groups vying for power, unless they all agree to democratic elections etc which I'm not convinced will happen. Especially when one group could make a strong claim to having done a large chunk of the work and are likely to want to maintain their power, wealth etc. 

And those kinds of civil wars can be even more brutal & lawless than your standard "government vs rebel(s)" civil wars. 

Were they linked with Alqaeda ideologically, or they just allied with them for political reasons in order to win the war?

[River 127,751]

13 minutes ago, 27monster27 said:

Netanyahus atrocities against the UN in recent days lead me to believe that Israel could become an actor soon, but that remains to be seen.

 

7 minutes ago, Bronco said:

Yeah with Israel having pushed out of the Golan Heights into the demilitarized buffer zone, there is significant potential for a 3rd military front opening in the Middle East. Albeit the situations is complicated by the various states backing the multiple rebel groups etc. It's just all very messy. Especially as we don't know what next month will bring for American foreign policy - obviously they will support Israel in the Middle East, but to what extent will they be distracted by the ongoing situation in S.Korea which could potentially threaten US interests in the tri-security network Yoon opened between the US/SK/Japan remains to be seen.  

Israel has been bombing in Syria the whole day and they already conquered the Syrian side of the Hermon Mount / Jabal al-Shaykh...

[GagaTheExplorer 3,053]

Please not another Bangladesh 🙏🏽

[Bronco 25,908]

1 hour ago, faysalaaa said:

Were they linked with Alqaeda ideologically, or they just allied with them for political reasons in order to win the war?

They were originally a jihadist group like alqaeda, but split off from them and maintained military links as far as I know. 

[Bonkers 30,860]

Trump should have been with him.  We almost had it all
 

 

[faysalaaa 5,341]

7 hours ago, Bronco said:

Yeah I know HTS (I think that's the abrieviation) have links to al-qaeda but are trying to moderate at least publicly. 

My main concern is, that so many people are obviously happy today because the Assad regime has been toppled and there's no disputing the horrors of that family's time in power; but it is incredibly rare that the next stage goes smoothly. 
There's likely going to be continuing civil war between the rebel groups vying for power, unless they all agree to democratic elections etc which I'm not convinced will happen. Especially when one group could make a strong claim to having done a large chunk of the work and are likely to want to maintain their power, wealth etc. 

And those kinds of civil wars can be even more brutal & lawless than your standard "government vs rebel(s)" civil wars. 

A civil war might be better than what was in place, as people in Syria had to turn against their own family in order to not get brutal treatment and disappear forever. Atleast in some extreme dictatorships they offer people a good living against the hard dictatorship, but Syria had nothing but brutality

I personally know people who went back to Syria to save their family from the government, and the only way to do it is to agree to brutally torture and kill innocent people in order to save their own family. I know Syrian families who are scared of the walls of their own homes because of how insane the Syrian intelligence is.

[ANVEEROY 65,324]

3 hours ago, GagaTheExplorer said:

Please not another Bangladesh 🙏🏽

I'm not sure what you're referring to. We just pushed out the dictator Hasina, and as someone from Bangladesh, I know what's true and what's not. After enduring a long dictatorship, things are definitely not perfect, but at least Hasina, who was responsible for the deaths of many innocent students (including some people I knew), is no longer in power. That situation was unjustifiable.

[faysalaaa 5,341]

Look at all the people trying to return home to Syria after Assad regime collapsed!