Syrian Regime Change May Be Good for US, Israel

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcoming Fox News Radios Jonathan Savage the program on the
Big Monster story that broke yesterday. I am a geopolitical
front and that is the overthrow of the Assad regime
after fifty some years in control Bashar Alissad and his
father before him ruling Syria than Iron Fist and the

(00:20):
rebels took over and he is out. Jonathan, good morning,
Good morning. What are the upsides and the downsides to
this event as it pertains to the United States.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Yeah, for the United States and its main regional ally, Israel,
this could be seen as having a real potential upside
as Syria was a great ally of both Russia and Iran,
really the only country in the region where Russia had
more influence than the United States, and the loss of
Assad as leader of Syria is a blow to Vladimir

(00:55):
Pussin into Russia's prestige and influence in terms of Iran,
another ally of Bashar Assad. Iran used Syria as a
way of arming and supplying the Hezblah faction, the Hebelah
militin group in Lebanon, and as a result of that,
of course, this is good news for Israel as well

(01:18):
because it will no doubt weaken Hesbelah who it's been
fighting in Lebanon for fourteen months.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
All right, President Biden ladds this as a fundamental act
of justice. He acknowledges there are risks. One of the
leading I guess this is basically a coalition Jonathan of
rebels that took over and one of the leading ones
has been designated by the United States is a terrorist group.

(01:44):
What do we need to look out for here?

Speaker 2 (01:47):
Yeah, Hyataria al sham is the name of the group
HTS for short, and this is I suppose one of
the potential downsides that one of the great risks of
the current situation. They are a Jahades group which started
off as a offshoot of al Qaida. They say they're
not that anymore. They have softened their tone in recent years,
but at the same time, there are people within that

(02:08):
organization who are more hard line. The leader Akhamount al
Sharrah just trying to distancing distance himself from the da
Jahais past of the group. He has promised that he
would provide a representative government, but he's promised religious tolerance,
saying they won't tell women how to dress. But at

(02:29):
the same time many one will remember the promises and
undertakens given by the Taliban when they went back in
Afghanistan in twenty twenty one, that country essentially an open
prison for women. Nowadays, those promises crumbling in the Afghan dust.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
One of the things that I like that is a
little bit of a switch from how we've been operating.
As President elect Trump says, stay out of it.

Speaker 2 (02:52):
This is not our fight, yeah, President elect Trump saying
that this isn't this isn't the fight of the UN States.
He's also talked about how the loss of a sad
as leader of Syria is a loss to Russia and
Iran as well, saying that Russia, his protector, wasn't interested
in protecting him anymore. President lect Trump also saying that

(03:15):
Russia and Iran are in a weakened state right now,
and this would weaken them further.

Speaker 1 (03:20):
Right and Israel, John and the correct me if I'm wrong.
I thought I heard a report Israel took out some
weapons locations inside Syria, right because Israel, because they don't
want the terror's getting a hold of the weapons of.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
A sad At exactly. Israel wants to make sure that
it can protect insecurity as well. It says it's taken
out a chemical weapons storage a sad remember used chemical
weapons against his own people in twenty thirteen. Israel says
it's gone after a chemical weapons storage and long range missiles.
That because at this time of uncertainty, and with so

(03:52):
many groups operating in Syria, many of whom are enemies
of Israel, they want to make sure that they can't
get hold of that too. US military has also targeted
at seventy five locations or seventy five targets linked to ISIS.
They say they have camps and operatives in Syria. The
US saying telling Fox News this should be seen as

(04:13):
a message to ISIS not to try to take advantage
of the uncertainty in Syria right now.

Speaker 1 (04:17):
Just one more thing, Jonathan, I guess nobody knows definitively
the answer to this question, but there's got to be
chaos over there right now. What kind of government do
you think might be set up in Syria?

Speaker 2 (04:29):
There are going to be competing interests. There are the
more Jihades groups, the HTS and others, but also there
are secular groups as well. There are people who see
this as an opportunity for Syrians to choose their own future,
something they haven't had anything like the opportunity to do
for well over fifty years. People are saying, look, we
need to get everyone round the table. We need to

(04:51):
get a government which represents all of Syria. The United
Kingdom says it's considering a changing its position on classifying
HTS as a terrorist group. That says it will only
do that once it assesses how they treat minorities and
how they're planning to approach the governance of Syria in
the future.

Speaker 1 (05:10):
Excellent, Jonathan, Thank you Jonathan Savage, Fox News Radio. Watching
that very very impactful situation.