As they sweep across northern Syria, the advancing rebels are posing fundamental questions not just for the regime of Bashar al-Assad, but for watching neighbours and Western leaders.
The civil war of 2011 to 2016 pitted Iran and Russia, on Assad’s side, against the US and Turkey, who both weighed in behind the efforts to overthrow the Syrian dictator.
Ankara and Washington have diverging interests: Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan wants to secure his country’s border with Syria, and eventually return hundreds of thousands of refugees. The US initially sought to back the rebels against the brutality of Assad, but has left a rump military force in the nation to clamp down on any resurgence of the Islamic State.
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معهد الشرق الأوسط (MEI) هو منظمة تعليمية مستقلة وغير حزبية وغير ربحية. لا يشارك المعهد في أي أنشطة دعوية، وآراء الباحثين فيه تعبر عن آرائهم الشخصية. يرحب المعهد بالتبرعات المالية، لكنه يحتفظ بالسيطرة التحريرية الكاملة على أعماله، ولا تعكس منشوراته سوى آراء المؤلفين. للاطلاع على قائمة المتبرعين للمعهد، يرجى النقر هنا.
Syria’s State Sponsor of Terrorism Designation Is Blocking Its Recovery
