US scrambles to shape post-Assad Syria but has to overcome years of disengagement
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. WASHINGTON—The unexpectedly rapid downfall of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria has turned the country’s future from a back-burner issue to a suddenly high stakes concern for the departing Biden administration—and almost certainly for Donald Trump. U.S.
officials are scrambling to assess the intentions of the rebel groups that drove Assad into exile, especially Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which is expected to play a pivotal role in whatever government emerges in Damascus but which is on the U.S. list of foreign terrorist organizations. The best case scenario would be a post-Assad Syria free from Iranian influence whose territory Tehran would no longer be able to use to send weapons to the militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon.
That could bring further sweeping changes to a Middle East already in flux, removing a key member of Tehran’s so-called “axis of resistance," the coalition of countries and militias in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen supported by Tehran to counter the U.S. and Israel. But another scenario is possible: If Syria or large parts of it fall under control of Islamist militants hostile to the West or the state collapses entirely it could bring further disorder to an already inflamed region.
For now, U.S. officials are uncertain what will happen and how much influence they have. President Biden plans to speak to Middle East leaders as U.S.
officials travel to the region in coming days to consult with Syria’s neighbors and a range of Syrian anti-Assad groups, a senior Biden administration official said Sunday. In seeking to shape the political outcome in what it says will be a process led by Syrians, however, the U.S. is starting from a disadvantage.
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