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A post-Assad Syria has just raised the risk of more conflict in the Middle East in 2025
With the future of the country up for grabs, warring militias are not the only parties with stakes in the outcome. Russia and Iran have interests to protect too despite their setback.
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Hundreds celebrating the end of President Bashar al-Assad's long and brutal grip on Syria on a road leading to the border between Lebanon and Syria on Dec 8.
PHOTO: NYTIMES
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The fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad
Mr Assad’s Syria functioned as a conduit for Iranian weapons to Hezbollah, the Shi’ite militia based in neighbouring Lebanon, which used to be regarded as the Jewish state’s most lethal foe. He was also the linchpin of the so-called Axis of Resistance, the group of radical states and militias determined to kick out the US from the Middle East. And if this was not enough, Mr Assad’s Syria was also host to the only Russian military bases in the region.
