Damascus:

Syrians returned on Wednesday to the national museum in Damascus, reopened for the first time since Islamist-led forces seized the capital and ousted president Bashar al-Assad.

The antiquities museum closed its doors on December 7, a day before Damascus was taken by rebel forces, over fears of looting.

“We firmly shut the museum’s iron doors after we saw the situation was unstable,” said Mohamed Nair Awad, head of the national antiquities authority.

In the early hours of December 8, after Assad had fled and as rebels approached the capital, many soldiers and police officers from the forces of the deposed president’s government quit their posts.

With checkpoints unmanned and no security personnel outside public institutions, looters were able to enter the central bank, several government ministries and other buildings.

Awad said his team immediately reached out to the new authorities, led by Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.

“They sent us a group of fighters to protect the museum,” and it survived unscathed, he said.

On Wednesday, members of the public walked around the building and admired its collection.

Archeology student Shahanda al-Baroudi, 29, was giving a friend abroad a tour of the museum via video call.

“When the regime fell, I remembered scenes from the Baghdad museum after the fall of Saddam Hussein and feared I wouldn’t see the artefacts again,” she said.

“I cried when I came back and discovered it had not been damaged.”

The Baghdad museum’s collection was decimated by looters in the chaos that followed the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq.

Outside the Damascus museum, Iyad Ghanem was among a group holding up signs demanding the new rulers help preserve the country’s cultural heritage.

Some artefacts at the museum date back more than 10,000 years, he said.

The museum’s vast collection includes tens of thousands of pieces, ranging from prehistoric blades and Greco-Roman sculptures to Islamic art.

The museum was closed for six years during Syria’s civil war, which broke out in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-Assad protests, to protect its precious artefacts from violence or looting.

It reopened in 2018, after Assad clawed back control of large swathes of the country.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha (L) and Syria’s newly appointed Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shibani shake hands during a press conference after a meeting between the Syrian leadership and a Ukrainian delegation to help strengthen ties between the two countries on December 30, 2024 in Damascus, Syria.
| Photo Credit: Getty Images

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister met with Syria’s de facto leader Ahmad al-Sharaa in Damascus on Monday (December 30, 2024), days after Kyiv announced the delivery of a large shipment of wheat flour to the country following the ouster of Bashar Assad, Russia’s ally.

Syria is gradually shifting away from Iran and Russia and rekindling ties with Western and Gulf nations that had opposed Assad’s rule, as well as Turkey, which backed opposition forces during the civil war.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Ukraine will send 500 tons of wheat flour to Syria through the U.N. World Food Programme, to help improve the country’s food security and economic crisis. About 90% of Syrians live in poverty, while over half don’t know where their next meal will come from, according to the U.N.

“The Ukrainian delegation held important talks with the Syrian administration, leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa and ministers. We support the Syrian people in overcoming decades of dictatorial rule and restoring stability, security, and normal life in Syria,” Mr. Zelenskyy wrote on X.

Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said he hopes “that a new Syria would become a country that respects international law.” He said Ukraine is ready to share its experience in gathering evidence and conducting investigations to hold war criminals accountable.

“The Russian and Assad regimes supported each other because their foundation is violence and torture,” he said.

Syria on Monday (December 30, 2024) appointed its first female interim Central Bank governor, as the country navigates through recovering its battered economy after the downfall of the Assad dynasty’s rule.

Maysaa Sabreen is the second woman appointed in a leadership role under Ahmad al-Sharaa and his Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which led Assad’s ouster in an offensive in early December.

Ms. Sabreen had served as the Central Bank’s first deputy governor.

She inherits a dire financial crisis following a decade of civil war, mismanagement and sanctions, which has led to the Syrian pound drastically losing its value against the U.S. dollar. The United Nations estimates that some 90% of Syrians live in poverty.

Syria’s Sednaya Prison

| Video Credit:
The Hindu

As Bashar al-Assad’s regime fell in Syria on December 8, relatives of detainees in the country’s various prisons have been lining up to search for their missing family members.

One such prison, Sednaya prison, became infamously known as a ‘human slaughterhouse’ due to its alleged brutal treatment of detainees.

The Sednaya prison was widely believed to be used as a tool for persecuting opposition forces and forcing them into submission. Reports indicate that thousands of opposition supporters endured horrific conditions inside, which earned the prison its infamous title.

Inside Sednaya prison, reports reveal harrowing accounts of torture, sexual abuse, and mass executions. An estimated 30,000 detainees are believed to have died due to these brutal conditions between 2011 and 2018 alone.

It was used as a high-security facility for political prisoners, opposition members, and individuals accused of opposing the Assad regime.

Video and translations: PTI

Damascus has fallen. Once again. One of the oldest cities in the world has fallen. To rise again from its rubble, heralding a new order. In its rise and fall, Damascus has lessons for all civilisations, all rebels, and all regimes.

It was in July 2012 that rebels penetrated Damascus, hitherto considered inviolable. Both the regime and the rebels understood its importance—military and symbolic. The rebels advanced to the heavily militarised capital of Syria but did not make any real gains. A year later, in August 2013, the Syrian regime launched Operation Capital Shield. The capital had to be shielded, and any amount of force was acceptable to thwart any rebel attack. The city was safeguarded through the use of disproportionate force against rebels operating from around Damascus. Only temporarily so. Eleven years later, the regime has fallen. For the sixth time, at least, since the 1st century AD Roman conquest of Damascus’s Seleucid empire.

The Cycle Of Power

Not only has Damascus seen violent regime changes, it has also experienced ethnic and religious clashes, including the Crusades. But in almost every significant clash—civilisational or political—one thing has stayed common: recapturing of the lost ground. The cyclical nature of power. The centuries-old unabated contestation on the socio-political turf of Damascus has defined its character. The current developments in Syria, therefore, ought to be examined through a more expansive glass of history and culture.

Peter Frankopan’s The Silk Roads underscores the importance of Damascus as an emporium adjacent to one of the most thriving trade routes of the world. Despite no easy access to the Mediterranean Sea, it was in the league of great cosmopolitan cities such as the Byzantine Constantinople (Istanbul), the Greco-Roman Antioch, and the old Chinese capital city of Chang’an. Its early embrace of agricultural practices owing to the natural inland water systems of the Barada River and investments in irrigation infrastructure made Damascus a land of plenty. 

Even at the peak of Christian-Muslim religious clashes around the 10th century AD, traders had a breezy time in Damascus. Muslim traders from Spain, for example, were protected by the Christians of Damascus. For one of the oldest inhabited cities of the world, with no religious underpinnings originating from any religious text, trade was vital. Traders, the outsiders, were therefore immune to the local political and religious strife. Damascene society depended on the “outsiders” to retain its regional power as a seat of sociocultural dominance. Damascus, as perceived today, is essentially a result of four centuries of Ottoman rule that came to an end with the First World War. The city was the seat of the Turkish Wali. 

Lands Of ‘Outsiders’

Damascus, curiously, wasn’t ruled by a local dynasty ever since the overthrow of the Aram-Damascus kingdom in the eighth century BC. This feature makes Damascus closer to Delhi than its Phoenician, Judean, and Arab neighbours. The “outsiders” soon started becoming the insiders, and the city evolved. Delhi has this in common with Damascus and lessons from the latter are, therefore, pertinent to us.

The Assad regime’s rise and fall alerts us to the limitations of liberalism when it stays within the elite confines. It is always prone to crumbling under the weight of popular mobilisation. The mainstay of Syria’s multicultural nature was consociational engagements between different ethno-religious groups at different times in history. The Assad regime’s politicisation of the Syrian society’s multiculturalism was self-serving. After the military coup of 1970 that installed Hafez al-Assad as a totalitarian ruler, all forms of dissent began to be crushed, ironically, by the ruling Ba’ath Party, the regional champion of dissenters in the Arab world.

When liberalism gets weaponised thus, it spells doom for not just the conservatives but also the quintessential liberal values. Bashar al-Assad carried forward this legacy of his father with more zeal and ruthlessness. The rebellion against him, therefore, needs to be seen as not only political but also socio-religious. The Sunni Muslims of Syria, the majority group, clearly had had enough of the marginalisation heaped on them by the Alawite (Shia) Assad family and their acolytes. 

Liberalism And Liberals

This should appear familiar to us. The undermining of liberal values by liberals themselves, the ascent of conservative forces, the politics of exclusion, and the many fires of violent ethno-religious clashes, we have seen it all. Politics of exclusion, even when the most inclusionary players indulge in it, never ends well. The civil war in Syria needs to be seen as another element in the continuum that has the return of the Taliban in Afghanistan, the Islamic Revolution of Iran of 1979, the reactionary overthrow of the Kemalist order in Turkey by Erdogan, and the fall of Sheikh Hasina in Dhaka as landmark events.

Immediately after the fall of Damascus, scenes of celebrations (and looting) started flooding the news and social media. Impervious to them, Israel moved to plant its flag beyond the earlier buffer zone. And this is the lesson Delhi’s regime and rebels must pay heed to.

(Nishtha Gautam is a Delhi-based author and academic.) 

Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author

Damascus:

Syrians lived in terror for decades of what went on behind the concrete walls of Damascus’s security compound. Now the Assad dynasty has been toppled, its dungeons and torture chambers are giving up their secrets.

Rebel fighters stand guard at the entrances to the forbidden city in the capital’s Kafr Sousa district, where the feared security services had their headquarters alongside government offices.

The myriad of different agencies which kept tabs on the lives of ordinary Syrians each operated their own underground prisons and interrogation chambers inside the walled defence ministry compound.

Syrians lived in fear of being summoned for a round of questioning from which they might never return.

AFP found first responder Sleiman Kahwaji wandering around the complex this week trying to locate the building where he was questioned and then detained.

He said he was still at secondary school when he was arrested in 2014 on suspicion of “terrorism”, a frequent allegation under the rule of now toppled president Bashar al-Assad, who brooked no dissent.

‘My dear mother’

“I spent 55 days underground,” he said. “There were 55 of us in that dungeon. Two died, one from diabetes.”

Scribbled graffiti left by the prisoners are barely legible on the walls amid the darkness.

“My dear mother,” one had scribbled, probably in his own blood.

The cells that were used for solitary confinement are so small there isn’t even space to lie down.

As many as 80 prisoners per cell were crammed into the larger ones, forcing inmates to take turns to sleep, recalls another former detainee Thaer Mustafa, who was arrested for alleged desertion.

All remaining prisoners were freed on Sunday after their captors fled as the rebels swept into Damascus capping the lightning offensive they launched late last month.

A large crowd broke into the security zone and ransacked the sprawling offices on the upper floors of the complex.

Thousands of intelligence files lay abandoned, many of them scattered on the floor, detailing the activities of ordinary citizens subjected to draconian surveillance by security service agents.

One handwritten document lists more than 10,000 prisoners held on suspicion of membership of the Muslim Brotherhood.

The Sunni Islamist group was anathema to the Assad clan who are members of Syria’s Alawite minority, followers of an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

Brotherhood membership became punishable by death since 1980 two years before Assad’s father and predecessor Hafez ordered the army to crush its insurgency with an assault on the central city of Hama which killed between 10,000 and 40,000 people.

Alongside each prisoner’s name and date of birth, the security services noted the details of their detention and interrogation, and whether and when they had died.

Another abandoned file details the detention of a Briton of Syrian origin, who was subjected to a lie detector test over allegations he was working for British intelligence.

Paid informers 

Another, dated this January, details the investigation into a bomb attack on the Mazzeh neighbourhood of Damascus, in which an Iraqi was wounded.

Nothing was considered too trivial to escape the security services’ attention. There are files recording the activities of ordinary citizens as well as journalists and religious leaders.

Not even government ministers were immune. On a list of members of Assad’s government, a security service agent has carefully noted the confession of each minister — Sunni or Alawite, Christian or Druze.

The security services operated vast networks of paid informers, who provided the tiniest details of people’s daily lives.

Families have been arriving at the gates of the Damascus security zone since Saturday, desperately seeking word on the fate of their missing loved ones.

Many come after first visiting Saydnaya Prison, a vast detention complex on the outskirts of Damascus where many of those who survived interrogation at security headquarters were taken for long-term incarceration.

“We heard that there were secret dungeons. I’m looking for my son Obada Amini, who was arrested in 2013,” said Khouloud Amini, 53, her husband and daughter by her side.

“He was in his fourth year at the engineering faculty, I went to Saydnaya but I didn’t find him.

“I was told there were underground dungeons here. I hope that all Syrian prisoners are freed.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Smoke billows as people gather to celebrate the fall of the Syrian government, in Damascus, Syria, Sunday, Dec. 8, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

Officials of the Indian embassy in the Syrian capital Damascus are safe and are in contact with Indians in the conflict-hit country where the government of Bashar Al-Assad fell to a militant uprising on Sunday (December 8, 2024).

“Our embassy continues to remain operational in Damascus, Syria. The embassy is in touch with all Indian nationals, and they are safe. The embassy remains available to assist Indian nationals in Syria,” said a source in the Ministry of External Affairs.

FOLLOW MORE: Syria war LIVE updates: Russia grants asylum to Assad and his family ‘on humanitarian grounds’

Last week, the Ministry had said that India was following the developments in Syria “closely”, saying that around “90 Indian nationals” remain in the country.

Official spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal had said on Friday, “Our Mission remains in close contact with our nationals for their safety and security.” Various UN agencies have 14 Indian nationals employed with them, he had said.

Syrian rebels declared the fall of President Bashar al-Assad today, less than two weeks after a lightning offensive that ended his family’s decades of rule. As Syrians woke up to a changed country, the rebel flags had replaced the posters of Assad, that earlier loomed over almost every corner. The development could lead to a significant change – a new official flag for the country that had its fair share of flag changes.

Current Syrian Flag

The current Syrian flag has been in use since 1980 and is a nod to Arab unity. The colours in the flag mean the following:

• Red represents the blood shed in the revolution for the freedom of Syrians
• White denotes a peaceful future
• The green stars in the middle represent Syria and Egypt – the two founding states of the United Arab Republic
• The Black is for the alleged oppression suffered by Arabs

This flag was first adopted in 1958 when the country had become independent of European influence and decided to form the United Arab Republic with Egypt. The country changed its flag another three times between 1961 and 1980 before settling on the current design. However, with the ouster of Bashar al-Assad that could change soon.

Syrian Rebels’ Flag

On Sunday, as rebels announced on Syria’s state television that the 50-year family dynasty was eliminated, the green-white-black-red opposition flags were seen across the country. The celebrations echoed in Germany, Turkey and Greece where jubilant crowds of thousands waved the Syrian opposition flags.

Supporters of the rebels entered the Syrian embassy in Athens raised the Syrian opposition flag from the rooftop. The police detained four people, however, left the flag flying, as per a Reuters report.

Rebel Flag And ‘Independence’

The rebel flag, however, is not all that much different to the current Syrian flag. It has green at the top, white in the middle and black at the bottom of the flag with three red stars in the middle.

This flag is a modified version of the independence flag first used in 1932 when Syria gained independence from France. The Syrian opposition favoured the flag to represent independence from the Assad government.

Bashar al-Assad and his family are in Moscow, Russian news agencies announced Sunday evening citing a Kremlin source. Russia has granted them “asylum on humanitarian grounds,” the source added.

After his regime was toppled, a statement read on television quoted Abu Mohammed al-Jolani – the leader of the Islamist alliance that spearheaded the offensive – as saying: “We continue to work with determination to achieve the goals of our revolution… We are determined to complete the path we started in 2011”.

In 2011, Assad cracked down on peaceful pro-democracy protesters, triggering a complex conflict that drew in foreign armies.

While there has been no communication from Assad or his entourage on his whereabouts, Prime Minister Mohammed al-Jalali said he was ready to cooperate with “any leadership chosen by the Syrian people”.

Iran’s embassy in Syria was “attacked” on Sunday, Iranian state TV said, after Islamist-led rebels declared the fall of Tehran ally Bashar al-Assad following a sweeping offensive that culminated in Damascus.

“Unknown individuals have attacked the Iranian embassy, as you can see in these images shared by various networks,” a state TV broadcaster said, showing footage from Al Arabiya, said to be from the diplomatic compound.

Iranian newspaper Tehran Times reported online that Iranian diplomats had left the embassy before it was stormed, citing foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei.

The report said that all embassy staff were safe.

It also accused rebel forces of being behind the attack, a claim that could not be independently verified immediately.

Authorities in Iran have yet to comment on Assad’s fall.

On Saturday, as the rebels pressed their lightning offensive but had not yet taken Damascus, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called on “the Syrian government and legitimate opposition groups” to enter negotiations.

His remarks marked a shift in Tehran’s tone towards rebel groups which Iran had previously called “terrorists” and refused to recognise them as legitimate actors.

Araghchi visited Damascus on December 1, days into the rebels’ offensive, meeting with Assad in the Syrian leader’s last public appearance alongside an Iranian official.

A day later, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian reiterated Tehran’s support in a telephone call with Assad.

The deposed Syrian leader last visited Iran in May 2024, shortly after the death of former president Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash.

Iran has supported Damascus during Syria’s civil war, which began in 2011, sending “military advisers” at Assad’s request.

Numerous Iranian Revolutionary Guards commanders have been killed in Syria, in combat and in Israeli strikes against presumed Iranian-linked targets.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

Islamist-led rebels declared they had taken Damascus in a lightning offensive on Sunday, sending President Bashar al-Assad fleeing and ending five decades of Baath rule in Syria.

A video circulating on social media shows rebels roaming inside the presidential palace in the capital Damascus. They were seen smashing Assad’s family portraits in the presidential palace.

Residents in the Syrian capital were seen cheering in the streets, as the rebel factions heralded the departure of “tyrant” Assad, saying: “We declare the city of Damascus free.”

AFPTV images from Damascus showed rebels firing into the air at sunrise, with some flashing the victory sign and crying “Allahu akbar”, or God is greatest.

Syrian rebels are now smashing gilded Assad family portraits in the presidential palace of Damascus pic.twitter.com/BZpZuIjwUr

— Drew Pavlou (@DrewPavlou) December 8, 2024

Some climbed atop a tank in celebration, while others defaced a toppled statue of Assad’s father, Hafez. “I can’t believe I’m living this moment,” tearful Damascus resident Amer Batha told AFP by phone. “We’ve been waiting a long time for this day,” he said, adding: “We are starting a new history for Syria.”

The president’s alleged departure, which was also reported by a war monitor, comes less than two weeks after the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group launched its campaign challenging more than five decades of rule by the Assad family.

“After 50 years of oppression under Baath rule, and 13 years of crimes and tyranny and (forced) displacement… we announce today the end of this dark period and the start of a new era for Syria,” the rebel factions said on Telegram.

Prime Minister Mohammed al-Jalali said he was ready to cooperate with “any leadership chosen by the Syrian people”.

Russia’s decade long effort to prop up Syrian dictator Assad has failed, with rebels in full control after only one week fighting.

Inside Assad’s presidential palace, Damascus. pic.twitter.com/wHVqtezBfq

— KyivPost (@KyivPost) December 8, 2024

HTS is rooted in the Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda. Proscribed as a terrorist organisation by Western governments, it has sought to soften its image in recent years, and told minority groups living in areas they now control not to worry.

Since the offensive began, at least 826 people, mostly combatants but also including 111 civilians, have been killed. The United Nations said the violence has displaced 370,000 people.

US President-elect Donald Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that “Assad is gone”, adding: “His protector, Russia, Russia, Russia, led by Vladimir Putin, was not interested in protecting him any longer.”

Assad was for years propped up by Russia and Iran, while Turkey has historically backed the opposition.

Outgoing US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had called on Friday for a “political solution to the conflict”, in a call with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan.

With inputs from AFP

New Delhi:

Syria’s future hinges on uncertainty after the abrupt fall of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime. Once thought unassailable, Assad’s rule collapsed under the pressure of a rapid offensive led by a group called Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), formerly known as the Al-Nusra Front affiliated with terror group Al-Qaeda, and allied factions. 

Bashar al-Assad came to power in 2000, succeeding his father, Hafez al-Assad, who ruled Syria with an iron grip for nearly three decades. Initially, there were hopes that Bashar would bring reform and openness to Syria. However, these aspirations were dashed as he maintained the repressive structure of his father’s regime.

READ | Fall Of Assads: How An Alawite Family Ruled Over A Sunni Nation For Decades

Assad’s legacy will forever be marred by his response to the protests in 2011, which escalated into a brutal civil war. Over half a million people have been killed, six million became refugees, and countless more are internally displaced. With military backing from Russia and Iran, Assad survived against a fragmented opposition, relying on Russian air power and Iranian-backed militias like Hezbollah.

Preoccupied with their own struggles – Russia in Ukraine and Iran facing regional challenges – neither could offer significant support. Within days, the rebels captured key cities like Aleppo, Hama, and Homs, before advancing into Damascus itself.

A Fragile Transition

Rebel leader Abu Mohammed al-Golani, known now by his real name, Ahmed al-Sharaa, announced the formation of a transitional authority. Syrian Prime Minister Mohammed al-Jalali has been appointed as the caretaker of state institutions.

READ | “End Of Era Of Tyranny”: Bashar Al-Assad Flees Syria As Rebels Move In

In a statement, al-Jalali expressed his willingness to cooperate with any leadership chosen by the Syrian people.

Despite these efforts, HTS’s history – rooted in al-Qaeda – casts a long shadow over its promises of a diplomatic and nationalist approach. Scepticism abounds regarding its long-term intentions and ability to govern a fractured country.

The end of Assad’s rule does not immediately translate to peace for Syrians. HTS’s past association with extremist groups raises fears of a harsh, authoritarian rule under the guise of Islamist governance. Millions of displaced Syrians, both within the country and abroad, face an uncertain future as they watch the unfolding events with hope and trepidation.

The Russian Setback

The fall of Assad marks a blow to Russian influence in the Middle East. Since its intervention in 2015, Russia has been the regime’s most steadfast supporter, maintaining strategic assets such as the Tartous naval facility and the Hmeimim airbase in Latakia. These bases are vital for projecting power across the Mediterranean and into Africa.

READ | How A Syrian Teen Triggered Al-Assad’s Fall With Graffiti 13 Years Ago

However, Russia’s military focus is currently consumed by its war in Ukraine. The loss of control in Syria raises questions about Moscow’s ability to safeguard its strategic footholds in the region. 

Iran Losing The Axis Of Resistance

For Iran, Assad’s downfall disrupts the “Axis of Resistance” that connects Tehran to Hezbollah in Lebanon through Syria. This network has been crucial for transferring weapons and exerting influence in the region. With Hezbollah weakened from its recent conflict with Israel and Iran’s proxies in Yemen and Iraq under pressure, Tehran’s war strategy will need a different approach.

READ | Mass Hangings, Torture That Destroyed Hope: Syria’s ‘Human Slaughterhouse’

Iran’s preoccupation with Israel, which it views as an existential threat, further limits its capacity to respond effectively in Syria. Israel’s recent targeting of Iranian assets has compounded these challenges, leaving Tehran on the defensive.

Turkey’s Role

Turkey’s role in Assad’s fall remains ambiguous. While President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had long advocated for a diplomatic resolution to the Syrian conflict, his calls were consistently rebuffed by Assad. Turkey, home to over three million Syrian refugees, has a vested interest in resolving the conflict to facilitate their return.

READ | Where Is Bashar Al-Assad? Questions Over Syrian President’s Whereabouts

Ankara has denied direct involvement in the HTS offensive, but analysts suggest that Turkey’s tacit approval or indirect support may have played a role. Erdogan’s priorities include securing Turkey’s borders and countering Kurdish militias in northern Syria.

Israel’s Strategic Thinking

For Israel, the collapse of Assad’s regime represents both opportunity and risk. The fall of Iran’s primary ally in Syria disrupts the supply chain to Hezbollah, but the emergence of HTS as a dominant force introduces new uncertainties.

Israel has reinforced its presence along the Golan Heights, preparing for potential spillovers or attempts by rebels to seize Syrian army stockpiles. The Israeli military is also wary of Iran and Hezbollah exploiting the chaos to acquire advanced weaponry.