An anti-government fighter treads on a statue of late Syrian president Hafez al-Assad that was felled outside the defense ministry's military security headquarters in the Damascus district of Kafr Sousa on Dec. 9, 2024. (Credit: AFP)
Declarations of support for the Syrian people and calls for a peaceful transition abound in the wake of the rebel takeover of Damascus, but the region's capitals have remained cautious in the face of what looks above all like a leap into the unknown. “The kingdom affirms its support for the brotherly Syrian people ... and calls for concerted efforts to ... prevent a slide into chaos and division,” a Dec. 8 statement from the Saudi Foreign Ministry read, issued the day Assad fled. It’s the same story in Rabat, Abu Dhabi and Cairo: the rebel coalition’s rise to power, with Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) at the helm, took them by surprise, and prompted calls for restraint. Here’s an overview of the main issues at stake in the sequence in the Arab world.Weakening of the ‘Axis of Resistance’In a joint statement issued on Dec. 14 on the sidelines...
Declarations of support for the Syrian people and calls for a peaceful transition abound in the wake of the rebel takeover of Damascus, but the region's capitals have remained cautious in the face of what looks above all like a leap into the unknown. “The kingdom affirms its support for the brotherly Syrian people ... and calls for concerted efforts to ... prevent a slide into chaos and division,” a Dec. 8 statement from the Saudi Foreign Ministry read, issued the day Assad fled. It’s the same story in Rabat, Abu Dhabi and Cairo: the rebel coalition’s rise to power, with Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) at the helm, took them by surprise, and prompted calls for restraint. Here’s an overview of the main issues at stake in the sequence in the Arab world.Weakening of the ‘Axis of Resistance’In a joint statement issued on Dec. 14...