Robert Ford: former US Ambassador to Syria on the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s rule

A former US Ambassador to Syria says the collapse of the more-than-50-year Assad Regime in Syria is a happy coincidence for the US. 

Leader Bashar al-Assad has fled Damascus for political asylum in Moscow. 

US President Joe Biden's called it a 'historic opportunity' to build a better future. 

Former ambassador Robert Ford says Biden shouldn't take credit - and Assad's control of major cities was very brittle. 

"When pushed - that is, to say, when a serious armed opposition attack came - his soldiers didn't stand and fight. Instead, they ran away."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
People in Syria waking up right now to a completely
different and changed country. They're celebrating the fall of its
longtime president, Basher Alissad, who has fled to Russia. He's
now basically an asylum seeker in Moscow. And there are
emotional scenes coming out of one of the country's most
notorious prisons where prisoners have been freed, their families reunited.

(00:20):
Robert Ford was the US ambassador to Syria, and he
joins us now, great having you on the program.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
It's my pleasure to be with you.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
Let's start with how quickly this happened? How did we
not see it coming?

Speaker 2 (00:34):
I think because the Syrian Civil War had greatly diminished
levels of violence and the lines of control didn't change much,
and Oasad controlled all of the major cities, and the
opposition was making no significant gains on the ground over

(00:55):
a period of years. So it just appeared that the
civil war bit by bit was winding out.

Speaker 1 (01:01):
And yet we say he was in control of these areas.
He clearly wasn't.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
Well. I think in a sense he was, but his
control was very brittle, and so when pushed, that is
to say, like when a serious armed opposition attack came,
his soldiers didn't stand and fight. Instead, they ran away.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
Biden, it seems to be taking some form of credit
for what's happened there, saying that the US strategy on
Russia and Iran is having an effect to you.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
By that, no, it's in it, well, I should I
shouldn't be so category. The Americans were not helping Ukraine
in it any way because of Syria. It's sort of
a happy coincidence that it worked out that way by product.
And similarly, when the Israelis really bloodied his ballah in Lebanon,

(01:55):
they weren't doing it because of Syrians or to help
Syrians get rid of an awful, brutal dictator. The Israelis
kind of bloodied his bulla of years earlier, if that's
what they were interested in. Instead, it's just a happy
coincidence out of what was going on in the Lebanon War,

(02:15):
which in itself was connected to Kasa.

Speaker 1 (02:17):
You've lived here between two thousand and eleven twenty twelve,
before the embassy was closed, that the US embassy was closed,
you were the US ambassador to Syria. What happens next?
We've seen when dictators fall, like you know, saddamu Sain
in Iraq. What happens afterwards? What do you think is
going to happen next?

Speaker 2 (02:36):
I know what I hope, which is that the armed
opposition factions and the political groups that are behind them
will come together in some kind of a broad coalition
government and as a transitional government and be able to
rule the country, perhaps with something like a ruling counselor

(02:57):
or a ruling a trio or I don't know what.
The Syrians are going to have to work that out.
My worry, of course, is that instead of coming together
in an inclusive coalition, they'll start fighting each other now
that they no longer have a common enemy. And that's
that would be something closer to example Libya.

Speaker 1 (03:17):
And that's not something we want to repeat. Robert Ford,
thank you very much for your time. Robert Ford was
the US ambassador to Syria. He was there from twenty
eleven until the embassy was closed, as you heard me
say in twenty twelve. Continued as ambassador, though in absentia,
until twenty fourteen. For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive,
listen live to news talks. It'd be from four pm weekdays,

(03:38):
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