Syria

There are growing indications – not yet certainties – that the top echelons of the Iranian regime are locked in a fierce debate over a comprehensive reassessment of their regional policies. The Farsi media and public statements by politicians allow only a glimpse of the intensity of the controversy. Still, the ongoing heated discussions have […]

The events that unfolded in Syria over the last weeks surprised not only the United States, but also Russia, Iran, and the Syrian people themselves. As Bashar al-Assad fled Damascus for asylum in Russia, his security forces shed their uniforms and their weapons and disappeared into the countryside. One of the most concerning things still […]

The speed with which the Syrian regime crumbled surprised even Syria-watchers, those who knew the depth of the rot. Corrupt, hated, cruel – that’s how Assad’s regime was seen by Syrian citizens. Many kept protesting against the regime for many months in southern, Druze-dominated Sweida province as well as other spots. The outside world stopped […]

The abrupt fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime alters the power dynamics in the Near East, including the United States, Russia, Israel, Iran and Turkey.  Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu wasted no time. The Israel Defense Forces seized the Syrian side of Mt. Hermon, giving it control over the tallest peak along the borderlands of Israel, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan – a perch to […]

The fall of the Assad regime is the greatest event of the war over the past year, although the Syrian army itself did not take part in the fighting. The ring of fire that Iran had planned to establish around Israel has been dismantled with the loss of the single most important link in the […]

Turkish-backed Arab jihadists have taken Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, and are moving on Hama, the former capital of the Muslim Brotherhood-led revolt in 1981-1982. Here is my bottom line upfront – the realistic best option for Syria is survival of the Assad regime, with further weakening of its Iranian support – and following are three […]

Just three weeks ago, thousands of Hizbullah fighters, commanders, and activists were killed or injured in Israeli “pager” attacks. Next the terrorist organization’s top leaders, including Secretary General Hasan Nasrallah, were eliminated in Israeli airstrikes. Then, after Israeli warplanes bombarded Hizbullah’s stronghold in Beirut and bases in southern Lebanon, Israel invaded with two divisions, aiming […]

In the immediate aftermath of Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7th and during Israel’s counter-offensive into Gaza, Iranian proxy militias in Iraq and Syria have escalated attacks on US positions in both countries. Fully 60 such attacks have taken place against US forces since October 7. 56 American personnel have suffered injuries in these attacks […]

On August 20, a majority of the previously quiescent Druze minority in Syria moved to open revolt. Chanting slogans to topple the government, demolishing statues of Bashar al-Assad and tearing down his billboard portraits, thousands of protestors spread from the main square of the provincial capital of Sweida to most Druze townlets and villages. On […]

Protests in Israel are nothing new, but those on the Golan Heights this June were different.  The government, as part of its clean energy program, had designated the Golan Heights for wind turbine projects. When construction began in June, the Druze on the Golan erupted in mass protests, attracting support from their coreligionists in the […]

There is little prospect of an Israeli–Syrian peace deal. Earlier attempts by Israeli leaders to come to terms with Syria had met with stiff opposition in the country.

The US was never much interested in Syria. What pulled America in, and who has benefitted from the Syrian tragedy?

Iran’s primary strategic objective is to drive the US from the region