Open Editor's Digest for free
Rula Khalaf, editor of the Financial Times, picks her favorite stories in this weekly newsletter.
The writer is the author of “Black Wave” and a contributing editor to the FT
“We are doomed to hope.” These were the words of the Syrian playwright Saadallah Wannous in 1996 during a speech he gave on the occasion of World Theater Day. Syria was under the iron grip of Hafez al-Assad, who also had 35,000 soldiers occupying Lebanon. Israel and the Shiite armed group Hezbollah, a client of both Damascus and Tehran, fought a 17-day war that year.
Hope in Syria would not come until 2011 when a civil uprising and armed rebellion against Assad's son, Bashar, attempted to overthrow the regime. The depth of despair, division, and violence that the regime unleashed on Syria, with the help of Russia, Iran, and Hezbollah, to remain in power, condemned hundreds of thousands to death and torture, and millions to displacement or exile. The lion survived but was condemned to a pile of rubble. Syrians are doomed to hope again, and it is clear that they have never given up.
The astonishing developments that occurred over the past thirteen days that led to the regime's rapid fall have stunned the world. The lion, father and son statues have been toppled. The prison doors have been opened. Families have been reunited after years of separation across the front lines. Thousands are already trying to return to Syria after years in exile. It turns out that the solution to the refugee crisis that has sent millions of Syrians to neighboring countries and Europe may simply be to remove a murderous dictator. Instead, in recent months, more countries have tried to normalize relations with Assad. Italy even sent an ambassador to Damascus.
Syria destroyed the world. In August 2013, then US President Barack Obama failed to enforce his red line on Assad's use of chemical weapons. The Syrians felt abandoned to their fate. There has been a significant rise in the numbers of foreign fighters traveling to Syria to help the rebels. ISIS quickly seized territory from Iraq to Syria. By 2014, millions of Syrians were fleeing the country, including to Europe, where the refugee crisis roiled politics, leading to the rise of populism and the far right and paving the way for Brexit. The red elastic line has also been read as weakness Russia Which intervened to save Assad, increased its military presence and tested its war arsenal, including by bombing hospitals.
The Syrian conflict is now proving to be the weak point of the Iranian axis. The Assad regime, an ally of the Islamic Republic since its founding in 1979, called on Tehran to help suppress the uprising. Hezbollah He deployed thousands of men to Syria, transforming from a Lebanese political party and armed group into an Iranian intervention force. But Hezbollah's decade-long fighting openly in Syria made it vulnerable to Israeli surveillance. This helped in Israel's recent military campaign, which decimated the group's leadership and destroyed much of its capabilities. Iran's arrogance increased when it added another Arab capital under its control. But helping Damascus also depleted Tehran's capabilities, drained its resources, and exposed its weaknesses.
It has been a tragic year in the Middle East, from the massacre committed by Hamas against Israelis on October 7, through the killing of more than 40,000 Palestinians in the Israeli war against Gaza, to the ferocious bombing campaign launched by Israel against Hezbollah that destroyed… Parts of Lebanon. The disorienting litany of disasters has left people exhausted by violence, exhausted by the pain of loss, and disillusioned with a Western-led regime that promises freedom and human rights but fails to uphold these principles in Gaza. Events in Syria now provide some balm. As a friend in Beirut told me: “Optimism in 2024 was not on my bingo card.”
The list of challenges facing Syria is long, including deep concerns about the rebel group Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham's vision for the future, the possibility of violent retaliation after five decades of repression, and the risk of a resurgence of ISIS. Syrians do not need to be reminded of this, they know it, even as they celebrate. They need good faith efforts to support the transition, which crucially also means putting an end to foreign interference, including by regional players who have competed for Syrian territory.
As for the risk of factional fighting, the country has already suffered from years of conflict between rival groups. Syrians have been thinking about this moment for more than a decade; They may have forged a new understanding of unity in the crucible of war. There were celebrations of Assad's demise even in regime strongholds such as Latakia.
We are doomed to hope again. Hope may not be a strategy, but it can bring down dictators and perhaps rebuild the country.
