No one disagrees that the Assad regime, from father to son, is a bloody dictatorship built on the skulls of millions of Syrians. It has wallowed in their blood, displaced them to exiles, and disappeared them into secret and public prisons. It is one of the most oppressive police regimes in the world and possesses one of the deadliest intelligence apparatuses, capable of targeting citizens for the slightest of reasons.
If there’s a country that has suffered from the Syrian regime’s transgressions, it’s Morocco—not just today but since 1973. That year, the late King Hassan II sent a military contingent of 5,000 men to Mount Hermon in the Golan Heights to defend Syrian territory. However, they were betrayed by Hafez al-Assad, who abandoned them under Israeli air strikes. If not for the Iraqi army, the contingent would have been wiped out entirely. Later, when Algeria created the Polisario Front, Hafez al-Assad was the first to support them with weapons. When his son Bashar took over, he followed the same path, becoming a strong ally in the axis opposing Morocco’s territorial integrity, alongside Algeria and Iran.
With the fall of Assad, it wasn’t just his regime that collapsed but also the facade that hid the disgrace of the Algerian regime. Algeria sent its soldiers to fight alongside Bashar’s army against the Syrian people. While the Syrian people will remember Morocco for its generosity and support for their revolution, they will also recall Algeria’s treacherous betrayal, inflicted by a regime as brutal as the now-defunct Assad regime. Algeria seems to be following in Assad’s footsteps, committing the same reckless mistakes.
Despite everything, we cannot obscure the truth. It is undeniably positive that a brutal dictatorial regime has fallen from the tree of Arab tyranny. But the more pressing question today is: what comes after the regime’s fall in such a sensitive region, one bordering key influential states?
We must all recognize a clear reality: the most dangerous phase the world is currently experiencing is the transitional period between the day Donald Trump’s defeat was declared and January 20th, when Joe Biden officially takes over the reins of power in the White House.
Since Biden’s defeat was announced, he has been pursuing a scorched-earth policy in the remaining weeks of his term to leave his successor with a world in flames. He has approved Ukraine’s use of missiles deep inside Russian territory and agreed to a $725 million security aid package for Ukraine, which includes large quantities of artillery, missiles, and air defense capabilities. In South Korea, we witnessed a failed coup attempt that passed in the blink of an eye. If not for the vigilance and awareness of South Korea’s political elite, the country would have sunk into the quagmire of military rule. In Algeria, we see provocations against Morocco reaching the point of harboring what they call the "National Rif Party.", They also organized the first edition of the "Day of the Rif" in the capital.
Meanwhile, in Europe, due to the economic crisis, governments are collapsing like leaves falling from trees, and the rise of both far-right and far-left movements has begun to revive imperialist tendencies. This revival appears to be a preparation for preying upon fragmented Arab states, dividing them among themselves with NATO as the enforcer. The closest example to us today is Syria.
The first wave of the Arab Spring primarily aimed to overthrow the Syrian regime, but it failed in this mission. Instead, other regimes fell as collateral damage. Today, we are witnessing the second wave of the Arab Spring unfolding with a similar script.
Abu Muhammad al-Julani may change his name to Ahmad al-Sharaa and erase his history of rising through the ranks of ISIS and al-Qaeda. Western media may attempt to paint the armed groups that have seized power in Syria with all the attributes of resistance and revolution it desires. However, this will not erase the public's memory that, until recently, these groups committed heinous crimes in the name of Sharia under the banner of the Islamic State and the caliphate—names crafted in the corridors of global intelligence to serve the agendas of division.
As soon as Bashar's regime fell, Israeli tanks moved toward the border city of Quneitra, declaring agricultural areas as military zones under the pretext of establishing a buffer zone to enhance Israel's security. Israel also announced its intent to open a new front along the Syrian border.
Thus, while al-Julani climbed the pulpit of the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus to deliver a sermon before the cameras, Netanyahu stood atop Mount Hermon in Syria alongside his generals, surveying the new Syrian territories he had seized without firing a single shot.
This explains the timing of the truce signed between Hezbollah and Israel and the militants' attack on Aleppo—everything had been prearranged.
We are witnessing the same scenes today, widely broadcast by Al Jazeera, that we have seen before. We saw Syrian citizens storm Bashar's residence, ransacking its contents and stealing dishes and glasses.
Before that, we saw Iraqis storm Saddam's palaces, Libyans overrun Gaddafi's compounds, and Tunisians loot Ben Ali's residences.
Once again, we witnessed the re-emergence of the same surprising hero who appears suddenly, like a messianic savior, to deliver people from their tyrants. Yesterday, it was called the "International Coalition" in Iraq. In Libya, it changed its name to "NATO Rebels." In Damascus, it became "al-Nusra," the "Syrian Revolutionary Front," or the "Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham" (HTS), all under the sponsorship of the media patron of Arab destruction: Al Jazeera and its networks.
A certain entity—let's assume it’s NATO, with the Turkish bazaar merchant Erdogan as the delegated war manager—has a blueprint and ready-made recipe that it applies to every Arab country when its hour for division arrives. It always starts with an economic blockade that leads to a social crisis and the mass displacement of millions of refugees. Afterward, armed rebels appear out of nowhere, multinational and multi-ethnic, riding motorcycles. They topple the existing regime after being provided with full air and ground cover. They parade through the streets shouting slogans, release prisoners, and then suddenly begin fighting among themselves over who will seize power. This results in a civil war that eventually ends with the country being fragmented into smaller states.
Anyone who views the fall of the Syrian regime in isolation, without linking it to what has been happening in the region for the past thirty years, will have a limited understanding of the broader objectives. The issue began when Hafez al-Assad, the father, was forced to preserve his life, that of his brother, and the Alawite sect—which constituted only two percent of the population—by signing a mutual defense treaty with the Russians. In return, Russia demanded the establishment of two military bases as the price for their support of Assad and his clan. From these bases, Russian aircraft began operating flights to Libya and various African countries where Moscow has its bases.
When the Israeli-Turkish-American plan assured Russia that its bases would remain secure, Russia agreed to sacrifice Assad, offering him humanitarian asylum on its territory.
It appears that this revised and "low-fat" version of the Arab Spring is set to target Egypt in the next stage. According to the planners, the fruit has ripened. However, it is not in Egypt’s interest for armed Islamists to dominate in Syria, just as it is not in Jordan’s interest. The sole beneficiary would be Erdogan, who aims to complete his project of controlling Libya, which borders Egypt to the west. Currently, Erdogan is securing control over Syria, and the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan will likely mobilize, especially as Jordan is poised to face significant and dangerous developments. Among these is what Trump, in collaboration with Netanyahu, plans to do—recognizing all settlements in the West Bank as part of "Judea and Samaria." In Trump’s lexicon, this means a state called Palestine will cease to exist.
The plan that seems surprising today was carefully prearranged. Syria is destined to be divided into six parts. The Kurdish region in the east will merge with the U.S.-backed Kurdish area in the northwest. A Druze region will stretch from Jabal al-Arab to the western Beqaa and Jezzine, and a Christian region will also emerge. Meanwhile, the Alawites will retain the coastal area where the two Russian bases are located. There will also be two Sunni regions: one stretching from Aleppo to the Turkish border and another from Damascus to the Anbar region.
History has taught us that the problem does not lie in the revolution itself, with its anthems and beautiful slogans, but rather in what happens when the revolution begins to devour its children as they quarrel over power. That is when the real tragedy begins.