Report to Congress on Syrian Regime Change

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Posted on 12/11/2024 11:57:32 AM PST by Retain Mike

Advances since late November by anti-Asad groups left much of western Syria (including Damascus and most other major cities,) in the hands of different forces: a coalition led by the U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) Hay’at Tahrir al Sham (HTS), the Turkey-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) coalition, and southern Syria-based armed groups. Groups (including Alawite minorities) with historical ties to the Asad regime maintain a presence in some western coastal areas where Russian air and naval bases are located. Eastern Syria remains largely under the control of the U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the U.S.-backed Syrian Free Army, both U.S. counterterrorism partners against remnants of the Islamic State (IS/ISIS) that once dominated parts of Syria and Iraq.

President Joseph Biden called Asad’s ouster “a fundamental act of justice” and “a moment of historic opportunity.” On December 9, a senior Biden Administration official asserted that U.S. policy helped bring about the weakness of the Asad regime and the “entire Iranian-backed artifice in the region,” and has “completely changed the equation in the Middle East.”

Outside actors, including Syria’s neighbors, may act to influence Syria’s transitional arrangements and the post-Asad security environment in ways that serve their discrete interests. Turkey supports armed groups in northern Syria that have seized areas near Aleppo from the U.S.-backed SDF since early December. The Turkish government seeks to counter the SDF because of links Kurdish SDF elements have with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK, another FTO). On December 8, Israel took control of some formerly Syrian military-held areas of the Golan Heights and said it would continue to strike “heavy strategic weapons throughout Syria.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu characterized Israel’s military as taking a “temporary defensive position,” and expressed his hope that Israel and Syria could have peaceful relations in the future.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.usni.org ...

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1 posted on 12/11/2024 11:57:32 AM PST by Retain Mike

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