December 9, 2024 • 12 mins
Rebel forces have taken control of Syria, ending the Assad family’s 54-year regime. Bashar al-Assad has reportedly fled to Russia, and international governments have said they’ll work to stabilise the country as it enters a new era. In today’s deep dive, we’ll explain how rebel forces took over Syria in just two weeks’ time, and what could be next for the Middle Eastern nation.
Hosts: Zara Seidler and Lucy Tassell
Producer: Orla Maher
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Already and this is the Daily This is the Daily OS.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Oh, now it makes sense.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
Good morning, and welcome to the Daily OS.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
It's Tuesday, the tenth of December.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
I'm Lucy, I'm Zara.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
Rebel forces have taken control of Syria, ending the Asad
families fifty four year regime. Bashah Alasad has reportedly fled
to Russia, and international governments have said they'll work to
stabilize the country as it enters a new era. In
today's deep dive, we'll explain how rebel forces took over
Syria in just two weeks time and what could be
(00:40):
next for.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
The Middle Eastern nation.
Speaker 4 (00:45):
Lucy, there's a common saying that there are decades where
nothing happens, and there are weeks where decades happen. And
I think it is fair to say that the last
week that just passed in Syria is the latter. It
feels like more history has happened there, you know, than
the years that preceded it. We have had the government
(01:07):
toppled in the country of Syria. Take me through how
we actually got there.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
Well, in kind of the broadest outline possible. For the
last twenty four years, Syria has been ruled by Bashah
al Assad, and before that it was led by his father,
Hafez al Assad, who led the air force in the
country and who came to power in the nineteen seventies
by overthrowing the previous president, who he then jailed indefinitely
(01:36):
with no charge and no trial.
Speaker 4 (01:39):
So the Assads as a family have had control of
Syria for over five decades.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Exactly, for fifty four years, exactly.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Bashah, who I'm going to refer to as Assad going forward,
that's the main Assad that we're talking about. He was
Hafes's second son. He was actually training to be an
optometrist in the nineteen nineties when his old brother died,
which effectively made him the heir to Syria's presidency, and
then when his father died in two thousand, Assad took
(02:08):
over as president. His main allies were Iran and Russia,
and he received military support from both of those countries.
Following peaceful protests against Assad's government in twenty eleven, which
was part of the broader regional era known as the
Arab Spring, Assad's government crackdown on protesters and other civilians.
(02:29):
This crackdown then spread into the Syrian Civil War, which
was between the Syrian military and anti government forces. As
many as six hundred thousand civilians are believed to have
been killed during the thirteen years of this war, and
twelve million people were displaced. Fighting in Syria had stalled
(02:50):
in recent years, but all of that changed late last month.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Yeah, okay, so let me just do a bit of
a recap.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
So Bashah Alasad comes to power in two thousand and
for a number of years he is ruling this country
in what can be described as a dictatorship. He then
faces opposition in twenty eleven as part of a broader
democratic push across the broader region. At that point, he
starts to crack down on protesters. Those crackdowns become violent.
(03:21):
Protesters are killed, as are other civilians, and that really
kickstarts as civil war that has raged for many, many,
many years, and it had always existed, but perhaps hadn't
been in the headlines as much as it has in
as you said, recent weeks. It then reached the headlines
because we saw a group of rebel forces and we
(03:44):
just need to distinguish. So we've got the government, which
is Sad and his people and his military, and then
we've got the rebel forces, and the rebel forces started
making moves to take over the.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Power in the country.
Speaker 4 (03:58):
Can you tell me a bit about these forces before
we then go into what actually happened.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
So the main thing that we know about these rebel
forces is that they're kind of a coalition that are
led by one main group. That group is an Islamist
militant group called Hayataria al Sham. This group was set
up in twenty eleven under a different names about Alnozra
and was originally connected to the group al Qaeda. Former
(04:23):
Islamic State leader Abu Baka al Baghdadi was also involved
in creating the group. It sitdance cut ties with al Qaeda,
and it's led by a man named Abu Muhammad al Jelani.
And late last month, this group, leading this coalition of
rebel forces, captured and took over the northwestern city of Aleppo.
(04:45):
And following that, al Jalani gave an interview to The
New York Times where he said that his aim was
to quote liberate Siria from this oppressive regime, speaking there
about Assad.
Speaker 4 (04:57):
And important to note here Australia, alongside a number of
other Western nations, do consider this group to be a
terrorist organization, but you said that they were key to
capturing Aleppo. They were leading this group of rebels who
captured Aleppo, and then on the weekend they moved into Damascus.
Can you tell me a bit about what actually took
(05:18):
place over the weekend.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
So they moved from late November from Aleppo to Damascus
over the weekend.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
The speed at which they moved has been.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
Attributed to a lack of resistance from sirious military and
one reason that has been given by international analysts for
this is that serious military, as I said before, is
supported by Iran and Russia. These two countries are currently
involved in other conflicts, they have other things going on,
(05:48):
and international analysts say they haven't been providing as much support.
That's one of the reasons that's been given. And what
that has looked like is that the rebel forces have
been able to move through to the capitol and were
able to take the capital more quickly than they otherwise
might have been.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
And so that happened on Sunday, and it was this
very dramatic you know, seeing the headlines kind of filter through.
It was firstly that they had captured the city, but
then in mid minutes, it looked like the government had
been overthrown and that Assad was out. We did see
a video statement posted by the group who said, you
(06:26):
know this is over, this is now ours. You started
this by telling us how much power and how long
the Asad family had been in power for. What's happened
to Bashar al Asad?
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Now?
Speaker 3 (06:38):
We haven't heard anything publicly from Assad. It's been reported
by Russian state media that he has he and his
family have sought asylum in Russia. That means kind of
legal protection, and as we know, Russia is an ally
of Assad. But yes, so far, the only people we've
heard from have been the rebel forces.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
We've also heard.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
From Prime Minister so Asad's second in command. Yep, he's
a man named Mohammad Ghazi al Jalali who's publicly said
that he's ready to assist with a transfer.
Speaker 5 (07:10):
Of power, which is quite remarkable, quite remarded, like he
is part of Asad's government and he came out with
this really clear statement saying he'll do whatever needs to
be done.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
He effectively said I'm sitting at home waiting to be
told where to go in order to make a transfer
of power.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Happen.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
It has been really remarkable to watch, and I think
one of the dominant scenes that seems to be sticking
with me is these videos of prisoners who have been
freed from prison and are walking around on the streets, celebrating, screaming,
holding up fingers to symbolize the length of time they
had served in prison. Can you just give me a
bit of color on that. Why that seems to be
(07:51):
such a big thing in this whole story.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
So under both Asad and his father's regimes, people were
routinely and it was certainly widespread, imprisoned for speaking out
against the government, for helping someone who spoke.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
Out against the government.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
The prisons that people were held in had what are
described as horrific conditions. Human rights groups have said that
executions were routine, torture was systematic, neglect, disease, starvation. The
conditions were, according to human rights groups, very very extreme.
The United Nations, in a twenty twenty one report, described
(08:31):
Syrian prisoners as quote forcibly disappeared. They said that they
included men, women, and children. One of the prisons that
the rebels opened is called sed Nay, a military prison.
It's near Damascus, and in twenty seventeen, Amnesty International called
that prison a quote human slaughter house. We'll be seeing
(08:51):
more from these prisons being opened in the coming days,
I think.
Speaker 4 (08:55):
And so that's just a really clear, I guess, demonstration
of how much and how quickly things have changed. You
know that there was opposition to the Assad government and
the way that was dealt with was through a prison,
and now these have quite literally been opened.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
The locks have been shot off the gate.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Yeah, I mean, it's remarkable.
Speaker 4 (09:15):
Can you just tell me a bit about what we're
hearing domestically about how people are taking to this news,
because you know, it's one thing to be sitting in
Australia reporting on this another, of course to be living
through it.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
What have we heard from Syrians?
Speaker 3 (09:28):
So we know that there has been a lot of
celebration to see prisoners released. These are obviously political prisoners.
We have seen quite a lot of vision of refugees
who had been living in Lebanon, neighboring Syria coming back
through the border into their home country, including literally walking
with their suitcases across the border into Syria, effectively saying
(09:50):
we can return home now it's safe.
Speaker 4 (09:52):
And of course there have been millions and millions of
displaced Syrians as a result of this civil war, which,
as you mentioned, has raged for so long.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
We've seen a lot of celebration from the Syrian diaspora
in other countries. One thing I've just seen is that
the Syrian national football team has actually changed their logo
as a way of supporting the possible new governments, kind
of suggesting what the new flag of the country might
look like. So it's really quite widespread. I would say
(10:22):
cautious optimism is the best way to describe it. UN
Special Envoy to Syria, gear O Peterson said, quote today
we look forward with cautious hope to peace, reconciliation, dignity
and inclusion for all Syrians.
Speaker 4 (10:37):
Obviously, so much remains unknown. What do we know about
what this sort of transition of power could look like.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
So the UN and the US are expected to lead
a process to set up a new government. US President
Joe Biden said the US will assist with that process.
And I should note that the US has had troops
in Syria since twenty fourteen, and it's reported that US
troops assisted at least one of the groups involved in
(11:05):
the rebel coalition and Like I said, the Prime Minister
has said he's ready, willing and able to transfer power
to a new organization, a new government.
Speaker 4 (11:16):
It will be so interesting to see if and when
Assad comes out and says something publicly, you know, will
we perhaps never hear from him again if he remains
in Russia protected again by that alliance. It's a very
interesting story, a very complex one with decades of history
behind it. So thank you for explaining that, Lucy, and
thank you for joining us for another episode of The
(11:38):
Daily oz. If you learned something from today's episode, why
not send it to a friend. It's those small things
that help an independent media company like TDA grow. We
will be back again later this afternoon and with the headlines,
but until then, have a wonderful Tuesday.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
My name is Lily Madden and I'm a proud Arunda
Bunjelung Kalkotin woman from Gadigal Country. The Daily oz acknowledges
that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the
Gadigal people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and Torrestrate
island and nations. We pay our respects to the first
peoples of these countries, both past and present,
Already and this is the Daily This is the Daily OS.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Oh, now it makes sense.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
Good morning, and welcome to the Daily OS.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
It's Tuesday, the tenth of December.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
I'm Lucy, I'm Zara.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
Rebel forces have taken control of Syria, ending the Asad
families fifty four year regime. Bashah Alasad has reportedly fled
to Russia, and international governments have said they'll work to
stabilize the country as it enters a new era. In
today's deep dive, we'll explain how rebel forces took over
Syria in just two weeks time and what could be
(00:40):
next for.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
The Middle Eastern nation.
Speaker 4 (00:45):
Lucy, there's a common saying that there are decades where
nothing happens, and there are weeks where decades happen. And
I think it is fair to say that the last
week that just passed in Syria is the latter. It
feels like more history has happened there, you know, than
the years that preceded it. We have had the government
(01:07):
toppled in the country of Syria. Take me through how
we actually got there.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
Well, in kind of the broadest outline possible. For the
last twenty four years, Syria has been ruled by Bashah
al Assad, and before that it was led by his father,
Hafez al Assad, who led the air force in the
country and who came to power in the nineteen seventies
by overthrowing the previous president, who he then jailed indefinitely
(01:36):
with no charge and no trial.
Speaker 4 (01:39):
So the Assads as a family have had control of
Syria for over five decades.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Exactly, for fifty four years, exactly.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Bashah, who I'm going to refer to as Assad going forward,
that's the main Assad that we're talking about. He was
Hafes's second son. He was actually training to be an
optometrist in the nineteen nineties when his old brother died,
which effectively made him the heir to Syria's presidency, and
then when his father died in two thousand, Assad took
(02:08):
over as president. His main allies were Iran and Russia,
and he received military support from both of those countries.
Following peaceful protests against Assad's government in twenty eleven, which
was part of the broader regional era known as the
Arab Spring, Assad's government crackdown on protesters and other civilians.
(02:29):
This crackdown then spread into the Syrian Civil War, which
was between the Syrian military and anti government forces. As
many as six hundred thousand civilians are believed to have
been killed during the thirteen years of this war, and
twelve million people were displaced. Fighting in Syria had stalled
(02:50):
in recent years, but all of that changed late last month.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Yeah, okay, so let me just do a bit of
a recap.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
So Bashah Alasad comes to power in two thousand and
for a number of years he is ruling this country
in what can be described as a dictatorship. He then
faces opposition in twenty eleven as part of a broader
democratic push across the broader region. At that point, he
starts to crack down on protesters. Those crackdowns become violent.
(03:21):
Protesters are killed, as are other civilians, and that really
kickstarts as civil war that has raged for many, many,
many years, and it had always existed, but perhaps hadn't
been in the headlines as much as it has in
as you said, recent weeks. It then reached the headlines
because we saw a group of rebel forces and we
(03:44):
just need to distinguish. So we've got the government, which
is Sad and his people and his military, and then
we've got the rebel forces, and the rebel forces started
making moves to take over the.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Power in the country.
Speaker 4 (03:58):
Can you tell me a bit about these forces before
we then go into what actually happened.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
So the main thing that we know about these rebel
forces is that they're kind of a coalition that are
led by one main group. That group is an Islamist
militant group called Hayataria al Sham. This group was set
up in twenty eleven under a different names about Alnozra
and was originally connected to the group al Qaeda. Former
(04:23):
Islamic State leader Abu Baka al Baghdadi was also involved
in creating the group. It sitdance cut ties with al Qaeda,
and it's led by a man named Abu Muhammad al Jelani.
And late last month, this group, leading this coalition of
rebel forces, captured and took over the northwestern city of Aleppo.
(04:45):
And following that, al Jalani gave an interview to The
New York Times where he said that his aim was
to quote liberate Siria from this oppressive regime, speaking there
about Assad.
Speaker 4 (04:57):
And important to note here Australia, alongside a number of
other Western nations, do consider this group to be a
terrorist organization, but you said that they were key to
capturing Aleppo. They were leading this group of rebels who
captured Aleppo, and then on the weekend they moved into Damascus.
Can you tell me a bit about what actually took
(05:18):
place over the weekend.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
So they moved from late November from Aleppo to Damascus
over the weekend.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
The speed at which they moved has been.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
Attributed to a lack of resistance from sirious military and
one reason that has been given by international analysts for
this is that serious military, as I said before, is
supported by Iran and Russia. These two countries are currently
involved in other conflicts, they have other things going on,
(05:48):
and international analysts say they haven't been providing as much support.
That's one of the reasons that's been given. And what
that has looked like is that the rebel forces have
been able to move through to the capitol and were
able to take the capital more quickly than they otherwise
might have been.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
And so that happened on Sunday, and it was this
very dramatic you know, seeing the headlines kind of filter through.
It was firstly that they had captured the city, but
then in mid minutes, it looked like the government had
been overthrown and that Assad was out. We did see
a video statement posted by the group who said, you
(06:26):
know this is over, this is now ours. You started
this by telling us how much power and how long
the Asad family had been in power for. What's happened
to Bashar al Asad?
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Now?
Speaker 3 (06:38):
We haven't heard anything publicly from Assad. It's been reported
by Russian state media that he has he and his
family have sought asylum in Russia. That means kind of
legal protection, and as we know, Russia is an ally
of Assad. But yes, so far, the only people we've
heard from have been the rebel forces.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
We've also heard.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
From Prime Minister so Asad's second in command. Yep, he's
a man named Mohammad Ghazi al Jalali who's publicly said
that he's ready to assist with a transfer.
Speaker 5 (07:10):
Of power, which is quite remarkable, quite remarded, like he
is part of Asad's government and he came out with
this really clear statement saying he'll do whatever needs to
be done.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
He effectively said I'm sitting at home waiting to be
told where to go in order to make a transfer
of power.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Happen.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
It has been really remarkable to watch, and I think
one of the dominant scenes that seems to be sticking
with me is these videos of prisoners who have been
freed from prison and are walking around on the streets, celebrating, screaming,
holding up fingers to symbolize the length of time they
had served in prison. Can you just give me a
bit of color on that. Why that seems to be
(07:51):
such a big thing in this whole story.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
So under both Asad and his father's regimes, people were
routinely and it was certainly widespread, imprisoned for speaking out
against the government, for helping someone who spoke.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
Out against the government.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
The prisons that people were held in had what are
described as horrific conditions. Human rights groups have said that
executions were routine, torture was systematic, neglect, disease, starvation. The
conditions were, according to human rights groups, very very extreme.
The United Nations, in a twenty twenty one report, described
(08:31):
Syrian prisoners as quote forcibly disappeared. They said that they
included men, women, and children. One of the prisons that
the rebels opened is called sed Nay, a military prison.
It's near Damascus, and in twenty seventeen, Amnesty International called
that prison a quote human slaughter house. We'll be seeing
(08:51):
more from these prisons being opened in the coming days,
I think.
Speaker 4 (08:55):
And so that's just a really clear, I guess, demonstration
of how much and how quickly things have changed. You
know that there was opposition to the Assad government and
the way that was dealt with was through a prison,
and now these have quite literally been opened.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
The locks have been shot off the gate.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Yeah, I mean, it's remarkable.
Speaker 4 (09:15):
Can you just tell me a bit about what we're
hearing domestically about how people are taking to this news,
because you know, it's one thing to be sitting in
Australia reporting on this another, of course to be living
through it.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
What have we heard from Syrians?
Speaker 3 (09:28):
So we know that there has been a lot of
celebration to see prisoners released. These are obviously political prisoners.
We have seen quite a lot of vision of refugees
who had been living in Lebanon, neighboring Syria coming back
through the border into their home country, including literally walking
with their suitcases across the border into Syria, effectively saying
(09:50):
we can return home now it's safe.
Speaker 4 (09:52):
And of course there have been millions and millions of
displaced Syrians as a result of this civil war, which,
as you mentioned, has raged for so long.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
We've seen a lot of celebration from the Syrian diaspora
in other countries. One thing I've just seen is that
the Syrian national football team has actually changed their logo
as a way of supporting the possible new governments, kind
of suggesting what the new flag of the country might
look like. So it's really quite widespread. I would say
(10:22):
cautious optimism is the best way to describe it. UN
Special Envoy to Syria, gear O Peterson said, quote today
we look forward with cautious hope to peace, reconciliation, dignity
and inclusion for all Syrians.
Speaker 4 (10:37):
Obviously, so much remains unknown. What do we know about
what this sort of transition of power could look like.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
So the UN and the US are expected to lead
a process to set up a new government. US President
Joe Biden said the US will assist with that process.
And I should note that the US has had troops
in Syria since twenty fourteen, and it's reported that US
troops assisted at least one of the groups involved in
(11:05):
the rebel coalition and Like I said, the Prime Minister
has said he's ready, willing and able to transfer power
to a new organization, a new government.
Speaker 4 (11:16):
It will be so interesting to see if and when
Assad comes out and says something publicly, you know, will
we perhaps never hear from him again if he remains
in Russia protected again by that alliance. It's a very
interesting story, a very complex one with decades of history
behind it. So thank you for explaining that, Lucy, and
thank you for joining us for another episode of The
(11:38):
Daily oz. If you learned something from today's episode, why
not send it to a friend. It's those small things
that help an independent media company like TDA grow. We
will be back again later this afternoon and with the headlines,
but until then, have a wonderful Tuesday.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
My name is Lily Madden and I'm a proud Arunda
Bunjelung Kalkotin woman from Gadigal Country. The Daily oz acknowledges
that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the
Gadigal people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and Torrestrate
island and nations. We pay our respects to the first
peoples of these countries, both past and present,
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