Post-Assad Syria: ‘Now Comes the Hard Part’

A Cipher Brief expert with deep experience in the Middle East sees both danger and an "extraordinary opportunity" in the wake of Assad's fall.

Syrian rebel fighters celebrate at the Clock Tower in the heart of the central city of Homs early on December 8, 2024, after rebel forces entered Syria’s third city overnight. (Photo by AAREF WATAD/AFP via Getty Images)

EXPERT INTERVIEW — The headlines would have seemed fanciful two weeks ago: “Rebel Army Ousts Assad” – “The Fall of Assad” – “Assad Flees to Russia” – or our own, from Sunday: “Syria’s Political Earthquake – and What Comes Next.”

On the day after a coalition of rebel groups marched into Damascus and ended the five-decade rule of Bashar al-Assad and his father, the late dictator Hafez al-Assad, the answers to those “What comes next” questions are at the heart of the Syrian story – for the country itself and the volatile geography it occupies. 

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