Fall of the Assad regime

On 8 December 2024, the Assad regime in Syria collapsed during a major offensive by opposition forces. The offensive was spearheaded by Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the Syrian National Army (SNA), and the Southern Operations Room (SOR), as part of the Syrian civil war that began with the Syrian revolution in 2011. The capture of Syria's capital, Damascus, marked the end of the Assad family's rule, which had governed Syria as a totalitarian hereditary dictatorship since Hafez al-Assad assumed power in 1970 after a successful coup d'état.

As the SOR advanced towards Damascus, reports emerged that Bashar al-Assad had fled the capital aboard a plane to Russia, where he joined his family, already in exile, and was granted asylum. Following his departure, opposition forces declared victory on state television. Concurrently, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed Assad's resignation and departure from Syria.

The swift fall of the Assad regime was met with shock and surprise throughout the world, and among the Syrian people as well. Syrian opposition fighters were reportedly surprised at how quickly the Assad government had collapsed in the wake of their offensive. Analysts viewed the event as a significant blow to Iran's Axis of Resistance due to their use of Assad's Syria as a waypoint to supply arms and supplies to Hezbollah, a key ally. Several Western academics and geopolitical commentators likened the regime's collapse to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, comparing the broader geopolitical shifts that occurred after both events.