By Alexis Simendinger & Kristina Karisch | The Hill
The stunning weekend collapse of Bashar Assad’s regime in Syria marked a “fundamental act of justice,” President Biden said on Sunday.
The Assad regime’s end came after a 10-day offensive by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham rebels, who made their way quickly across Syria and took large portions of what had been government-held land. Early Sunday, the rebels captured the capital city of Damascus, ending the Assad family’s 50-year rule — mired by 13 years of civil war and dire humanitarian conditions.
Speaking at the White House, Biden on Sunday called the fall of Assad’s “abhorrent” regime a “historic opportunity for the long-suffering people of Syria.”
“We will remain vigilant,” Biden said. “Make no mistake, some of the rebel groups that took down Assad have their own grim record of terrorism and human rights abuses.”
He added that the groups are “saying the right things now. But as they take on greater responsibility, we will assess not just their words, but their actions.”
White House advisers said the U.S. has no intention to intervene in Syria to aid rebels on the ground. But National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said Saturday that the speed and scale of their rapid advance came, in part, because Assad’s chief backers — Iran, Russia and Hezbollah — had all been “weakened and distracted,” in recent months.
▪ The New York Times: Who is Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, the leader of Syria’s rebel offensive?
▪ The Wall Street Journal: Inside the 11-day blitz that toppled Assad.
▪ The Washington Post: Assad’s fall was swift and unexpected. But the signs were always there.
▪ NBC News: Assad and his family have been granted asylum in Moscow.
Assad’s defeat ended the reign of a leader who used poison gas and barrel bombs to kill thousands of his own citizens, plunging his country into 13 years of civil war, and dealt a blow to Russia and Iran’s territorial ambitions.
What happens now? The rebels today began trying to bring stability to Damascus, taking up positions outside banks and public buildings and directing traffic, as enormous questions loomed over the future of the country. They must now extend control over a country with deep divisions. The militia group that took power has a troubled past, with historic ties to both al-Qaeda and the Islamic State. Now, governments are watching with wariness as Syria comes under the sway of a group that the U.S. has officially labeled a terrorist organization.
Shortly before the fall of Assad’s regime on Sunday morning, President-elect Trump said the U.S. should not intervene in the rebel takeover unfolding in Damascus. HTS’s capture of the capital carries cascading geopolitical implications. In the waning days of his presidency, Biden is trying to secure his international legacy, and Trump is launching shadow foreign policy ahead of his inauguration.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday that the U.S. has taken notice of efforts by rebel leaders to moderate their rhetoric and downplay their Islamist roots, adding that “we will assess not just their words, but their actions.”
To work toward stability in Syria, a senior administration official told The Washington Post the White House is leaving open the possibility that Washington would remove Hayat Tahrir al-Sham from the terrorism list in order to engage with it more deeply.
“HTS is, again, saying the right things,” the official said. “So far, doing the right thing, but they are not the only group. And there’s a series of opposition groups that came that reached Damascus from the south, they’re very different.”
▪ The New York Times: As Syrian rebels take charge, freeing prisoners of Assad is a priority.
▪ Politico: The U.S. carried out a major round of airstrikes on ISIS targets on Sunday “to ensure that ISIS does not seek to take advantage of the current situation to reconstitute in central Syria,” according to U.S. Central Command.
▪ The New York Times analysis: With Assad gone, a brutal dictatorship ends. But the new risks are huge.
▪ Axios: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that the collapse of Assad’s regime was a “direct result” of Israel’s military campaign against Iran and Hezbollah. The Israeli military subsequently captured territory on the Syrian side of the border in the Golan Heights, and conducted airstrikes targeting chemical weapons caches.
“Meet the Press”: Trump plans to make immediate and sweeping changes after he takes office on Jan. 20, he told NBC News’s Kristen Welker on Friday, including pardons for those convicted in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. In the interview, which aired Sunday, Trump vowed to launch mass deportations and end birthright citizenship once he takes office. Trump added he doesn’t plan to raise the age for government programs like Social Security and Medicare, and will not make cuts to them as part of spending reduction efforts led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.
The president-elect also spoke about his plan to impose tariffs on imported goods, conceding he can’t “guarantee American families won’t pay more” as a result of his plan.
“I can’t guarantee anything,” Trump said. “I can’t guarantee tomorrow.”
During the interview, the president-elect would not concede that he lost the 2020 election. Asked how he thinks Democrats stole that election but not the 2024 race, Trump said, “Because I think it was too big to rig.”
▪ NBC News: Trump says he won’t fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.
▪ NBC News: Trump says he thinks Defense secretary nominee Pete Hegseth can be confirmed.
| 3 Things to Know Today |
- Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.) last week said he will revive a bill called the Well-Being Insurance for Seniors to be at Home, or WISH, Act, which calls for creation of a federal fund for catastrophic long-term care needs, an emerging national problem among retiring baby boomers. To receive benefits, Americans would need to contribute to the proposed program through a payroll tax.
- A secret Pentagon war game decades ago offers a sobering conclusion about the art of nuclear de-escalation in an era in which the global nuclear arsenal is growing: escalation inevitably spirals out of control.
- Not in good odor: The president-electis marketing an election-victory Trump-branded fragrance with an ad and social media post featuring a photo of first lady Jill Biden seated next to him in Paris on Saturday. Trump calls the limited edition $200 item “Fight, Fight, Fight.”
