Portrait of HTS leader Abu Mohammad al-Jolani displayed on the rear window of a car in Latakia, Dec. 10, 2024. (Credit: Aref Watad/AFP)
The rise to power in Syria of a group some label as Islamist, others as jihadist, is currently a secondary event compared to the fall of the Assad regime. For Syria and the region, from (geo)political and historical perspectives, the end of the "kingdom of silence and fear" and the collapse of the self-proclaimed "axis of resistance" represent a liberation that finally opens the door to new possibilities. However, these developments are accompanied by two much more troubling dynamics. On one hand, the morphogenesis of a new Middle East dominated by Israel and, to a lesser extent, Turkey, rising from the ruins of Gaza, Lebanon and Syria. On the other hand, the striking transformation of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a former branch of al-Qaeda — whose spokesperson now calls for the creation of a civil state — so radical it naturally...
The rise to power in Syria of a group some label as Islamist, others as jihadist, is currently a secondary event compared to the fall of the Assad regime. For Syria and the region, from (geo)political and historical perspectives, the end of the "kingdom of silence and fear" and the collapse of the self-proclaimed "axis of resistance" represent a liberation that finally opens the door to new possibilities. However, these developments are accompanied by two much more troubling dynamics. On one hand, the morphogenesis of a new Middle East dominated by Israel and, to a lesser extent, Turkey, rising from the ruins of Gaza, Lebanon and Syria. On the other hand, the striking transformation of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a former branch of al-Qaeda — whose spokesperson now calls for the creation of a civil state — so radical it...