A large photo honoring Saddam Hussein in Syria's Idlib province, on Dec. 19, 2024, eleven days after the fall of the Assad regime. (Credit: Mohammad Yassine/L'Orient-Le Jour)
There wasn’t even the thickness of a cigarette paper between them. Both claimed the Baathist ideology. Both had built prison systems founded on terror, torture, and the destruction of opposition. Both succeeded in exploiting the identity pluralism of their societies to entrench their power, all while cloaking themselves in a comfortable secular veneer.And yet, Hafez al-Assad and Saddam Hussein harbored a cordial hatred for each other. Is that why, in Damascus, laudatory depictions of the former Iraqi dictator are found on banners and windshields? The phenomenon is all the more striking given that, since the fall of Bashar al-Assad and the rise of Ahmad al-Sharaa, the latter seems intent on breaking away from his predecessor’s legacy of personality cult. Proof of this is that, in February 2025, Syrian security forces confiscated flags...
There wasn’t even the thickness of a cigarette paper between them. Both claimed the Baathist ideology. Both had built prison systems founded on terror, torture, and the destruction of opposition. Both succeeded in exploiting the identity pluralism of their societies to entrench their power, all while cloaking themselves in a comfortable secular veneer.And yet, Hafez al-Assad and Saddam Hussein harbored a cordial hatred for each other. Is that why, in Damascus, laudatory depictions of the former Iraqi dictator are found on banners and windshields? The phenomenon is all the more striking given that, since the fall of Bashar al-Assad and the rise of Ahmad al-Sharaa, the latter seems intent on breaking away from his predecessor’s legacy of personality cult. Proof of this is that, in February 2025, Syrian security forces confiscated...
Israel continues demolitions and artillery fire after deadly day