Three months on, could Syria slide back into civil war?In the Alawite bastion of ousted president Bashar al-Assad, the bloodiest week in years with attacks and revenge killings of civilians that the new masters of Damascus are scrambling to contain. Why did the Mediterreanean coast region erupt? What triggered it?
And what’s the next move by new strongman Mohammad al-Sharaa? The jihadist militia leader who’s traded in his fatigues for a suit and promised the outside world justice and respect for minority rights. Enough for the West to begin a desperately-needed easing of sanctions. Have the likes of the European Union moved too slowly or too fast?
And how does Al-Sharaa navigate now between his own alliance of forces that include Turkey-backed militias which contributed to the overthrow of Assad but could pose a threat to the central authority in Damascus, the U-S-backed Kurds who want federalism, and the Russians who want to keep their Mediterranean bases? Not to mention Israel, which rejected overtures of détente and for the moment occupies more land in the Golan Heights
Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Elisa Amiri, Ilayda Habip.
-
Aghiad GHANEM Lecturer, Sciences Po Paris
-
Farah YOUSSEF Researcher and human rights defender, political activist
-
Zineb RIBOUA Research Fellow, Center for Peace and Security in the Middle East, Hudson Institute
-
Joshua LANDIS Director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma
English (US) · 