End of a despotic regime

Departure of Bashar al-Assad and seizing control of Damascus by rebel forces on Sunday marks the end of a despotic regime in Syria. No tears would be shed at the culmination of a rule under which the embattled nation witnessed exodus of nearly three-fifths of its people and major part of the nation turned into rubble. While the rebels may be celebrating the decimation of the brutal dynastic rule of the Assad family, it is not yet clear as to who the new incumbents are and how they would restore the rule of law in a country that has seen a civil war and strife for over a decade? All that is known is that the rebel force Hayat Tahrir al-Shams is a splinter of the notorious ISIS and al-Qaeda which had turned against its own founders.

Their sudden emergence on the scene, blitzkrieg style march on the capital Damascus against Assad’s forces with quick falling of cities on the way should cause both surprise and mystery. The fall of the Assad regime just adds one more element to the quagmire Syria had turned following the start of the Arab spring. Turkiye is engaged in crushing the Kurdish rebels in the north even while hosting over two million Syrian refugees along its border. The United States has stationed its forces in a region abutting Iraq. Lebanon based Hezbollah had been operating freely along borders with Israel and Lebanon. Though the new regime has been welcomed by ordinary citizens, it is still not known how it would integrate the diverse regions and establish the territorial integrity and sovereignty reduced to smithereens in the wake of a decade old civil war. Assad’s family belonged to the minority Alwaites, who form part of Shiite Islam and drew support from the Iranian government. Collapse of the regime translates into Iran losing a key ally in the region which acted as a conduit for arms supply and training for Hezbollah in Lebanon. How things would pan out in the region now that a ceasefire has silenced the guns along southern Lebanon’s borders with Israel is clearly an imponderable.

The new rulers will be expected to act fast to see a smooth transition of power and restoration of peace to enable refugees to return to their abodes, rebuild the infrastructure and homes, clarify their stand to the vital questions of future governance of the nation and ties with the neighbouring nations and major powers of the West who had given up hopes of constructive engagement with a regime unwilling to unhinge itself from Russia.