As a brand new authorities is about to type in Syria following a sudden coup earlier this week, america’ response to the political upheaval seems unsure.
Insurgent teams unexpectedly overthrew Syria’s longtime chief, Bashar al-Assad, on Dec. 8, 2024, sending the dictator into exile in Russia.
President Joe Biden has warned that the insurgent teams have a “grim record of terrorism” and mentioned that the U.S. might be watching the teams’ actions. However President-elect Donald Trump has mentioned that the U.S. shouldn’t intervene within the sudden takeover and its aftermath.
Amy Lieberman, a politics and society editor at The Dialog U.S., spoke with Jordan Tama, a scholar of U.S. international coverage at American College, to raised perceive the position that the U.S. has performed in Syria – and what Assad’s sudden fall from energy would possibly imply for this relationship.
A damaged portrait of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in a authorities constructing on Dec. 7, 2024, in Hama, Syria.
Omar Haj Kadour/AFP through Getty Photos
What’s most essential to know about US engagement with Syria?
U.S. involvement in Syria dates again to a minimum of 2011, when the Arab Spring, a pro-democracy Center East protest motion, broke out and unfold to Syria.
This prompted a brutal crackdown by the Syrian authorities, led by Syrian chief al-Assad. A few of the protesters then grew to become a part of insurgent teams in Syria and fought in opposition to the Assad authorities, leading to civil conflict. The U.S. instantly imposed heavy monetary sanctions on the federal government of Syria.
In 2013, the U.S. started offering arms to a number of the insurgent teams that have been resisting the Assad authorities. That 12 months, the Syrian navy additionally crossed a “red line” that had been set by then-President Barack Obama by utilizing chemical weapons in opposition to civilians. Regardless of stress to implement the purple line, Obama opted to not intervene as soon as Assad agreed to destroy Syria’s chemical weapons – a dedication that Assad didn’t totally reside as much as.
In 2014, the Islamic State group, typically often known as ISIS or IS, took over components of Syria. The U.S. deployed forces on to battle IS in 2015. By 2019, the U.S. had severely weakened IS, and the U.S. scaled again its presence. The U.S. by no means accepted the Assad authorities’s legitimacy, however it did grow to be largely resigned to Assad’s rule.
What does US involvement at present appear like?
The U.S. has remained concerned in Syria in a number of methods. First, it has about 900 troops deployed in some distant components of Syria to forestall ISIS from regrouping.
Second, the U.S. has given greater than US$1 billion in navy help to extra average armed teams that resisted management by the Assad authorities. A lot of this support has gone to the Syrian Democratic Forces, a navy pressure led by the Kurds, a minority ethnic group that controls northeast Syria and has labored carefully with the U.S. on combating ISIS whereas sustaining its opposition to Assad.
Third, the U.S. has saved heavy monetary sanctions in place in opposition to the Syrian authorities courting again to 2011. And fourth, the U.S. has been offering humanitarian support for Syrians affected by the nation’s 13-year civil conflict.
The U.S. didn’t play a direct position within the current toppling of the Syrian authorities. The Syrian insurgent teams that overthrew Assad are primarily backed by Turkey, which seeks to weaken the Syrian department of one other Kurdish group known as the Kurdistan Employees’ Get together. Turkey views this group as a menace to manage over its personal Kurdish inhabitants.
What does the overthrow of the Assad authorities imply for the US?
The U.S. isn’t but making any agency judgments about whether or not this variation goes to be good for the U.S. Total, Assad’s fall opens the potential of improved relations between the U.S. and Syria, however that can rely, largely, on the brand new management in Syria.
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, the group that led the overthrow of Assad, has dominated in an authoritative method within the space of Syria it has already been controlling.
ISIS additionally represents a seamless concern for the U.S. The U.S. has carried out a sequence of strikes on ISIS targets in current days in an effort to forestall ISIS from gaining floor following the collapse of the Assad authorities.
Folks collect with insurgent fighters on Umayyad Sq. in Damascus, Syria, on Dec. 10, 2024.
Nael Chahine/Center East Photos/AFP through Getty Photos
What does Trump’s election imply for the US engagement in Syria?
Trump has taken the place that Syria is a large number and that it isn’t America’s drawback. Throughout his first time period, Trump wished to drag out the entire remaining U.S. troops from Syria, and his advisers persuaded him to maintain a small variety of troops there. Whether or not Syria’s new leaders act in an authoritarian method possible received’t matter to Trump.
However Trump is strongly pro-Israel, and he’ll possible not have any drawback with Israel finishing up strikes in Syria.
Below Trump, the U.S. will most likely not be a serious participant shaping occasions in Syria, however I believe it’s within the nation’s curiosity to stay engaged, as a result of what occurs in Syria does have an effect on the remainder of the Center East – and, by extension, the U.S.