President Assad

I agree Babs03 which is why I think it will result in more people fleeing Syria and will Turkey be willing to accept everyone who crosses the border into Turkey. They will not welcome Kurds and the Syrian Rebels have already started attacking Kurdish forces in Northern Syria, yet more bloodshed.

My initial reaction, like most, was that I was glad to see the end of the Assad rule, a cruel man from a cruel family, but politics abhors a vacuum and we just don't know what is in store for the poor people of Syria. I would like to see Assad captured and tried in the International Courts.

I am truly unsure that Assad was a cruel leader - will the next leader be kind? I doubt it. Didn’t Assad train to be a doctor before becoming president?
The news becomes worse daily.

The HTS currently saying they will work with prime minister towards elections but so many other forces at work. Oh for the Syrian people to have some relief imagine living like that since 2011. And people want to "come home".

ronib

I am truly unsure that Assad was a cruel leader - will the next leader be kind? I doubt it. Didn’t Assad train to be a doctor before becoming president?
The news becomes worse daily.

A quick read of Wikipedia will give details of the atrocities committed by Assad, the most awful I remember seeing was the gassing of civilians, footage of children screaming as it went into their eyes. So yes, he was a cruel man, he headed a corrupt administration, having trained as a doctor doesn't excuse any of this.

However, we do not yet know what is to come for the people of Syria.

Assad War Crimes - Amnesty report, issued an hour ago

www.amnesty.org.uk/press-releases/syria-ousting-assad-historic-opportunity-redress-decades-human-rights-violations

I know very little about it, but given the scale of the exodus during the civil war and the wide coalition that has now fought to free the country I'd hope that more would return than leave. The country certainly needs its people back, most Syrians refugees longed to return & Turkey are probably counting on the huge number of Syrian refugees they have decreasing now.

ronib

I am truly unsure that Assad was a cruel leader - will the next leader be kind? I doubt it. Didn’t Assad train to be a doctor before becoming president?
The news becomes worse daily.

ronib are you serious? I am truly unsure that Assad was a cruel leader

Follow this link www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=Reports+on+turture+and+imprisonment+in+Syria+under+assad to page after page of reports from all kinds of reputable international bodies on the extent of torture, arbitary imprisonment and govrnment authroised murders.

Israel is moving more troops up to the buffer zone border with Syria to ensure its interests are protected.

I won't add more as its being reported variously as "increasing troops" to "seizing the border" and there is enough drama in the situation already.

Surprising that the International Crminal Court never bothered to pursue Assad.

Reuters has collated the initial reactions from leaders around the world, which makes interesting reading. Reading between the lines, it looks as though it was unexpected, and what will happen next is unknown - not that that helps us understand I know.
www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/world-reaction-end-assad-rule-syria-2024-12-08/

Create a vacuum. Someone will fill it.
Just who?

ronib

I am truly unsure that Assad was a cruel leader - will the next leader be kind? I doubt it. Didn’t Assad train to be a doctor before becoming president?
The news becomes worse daily.

You must be in a minority of one!
There is a list as long as your arm of atrocities inflicted on his own people, widespread imprisonment without trial and torture (even of children) - go Google.

ronib

I am truly unsure that Assad was a cruel leader - will the next leader be kind? I doubt it. Didn’t Assad train to be a doctor before becoming president?
The news becomes worse daily.

Hundreds of thousands of Syrians were killed, many of them civilians, and mostly by the Syrian military. The U.S. and the United Nations blamed Assad for a chemical weapons attack that killed hundreds, and perhaps more than 1,000 people, in 2013. Millions of Syrians fled abroad and millions more have been displaced inside the country. Overall, roughly half the country's 23 million people have been driven from their homes in one of the worst humanitarian crises of this century

I think you can be assured he was a cruel leader

Grantanow

Surprising that the International Crminal Court never bothered to pursue Assad.

ICC can only prosecute cases that happen in member states, Syria is not a member state. However, although Israel is not a member state, Netanyahu etc are charged with offences committed in Gaza, Putin is being charged for offences committed in Ukraine.
"Palestine acceded to the Rome statute in 2015, and the ICC ruled in 2021 that it was a state, thereby extending the court’s jurisdiction to territories occupied by Israel since 1967 – Gaza and the West Bank including East Jerusalem." Guardian
"Ukraine is not a State Party to the Rome Statute, but it has twice exercised its prerogatives to accept the Court's jurisdiction over alleged crimes under the Rome Statute occurring on its territory, pursuant to article 12(3) of the Statute."

I'm not a lawyer but this is what I found in support.

We sure live in interesting times. Assad was always a Russian (read also Iranian) puppet.

For me it signals how much Putin is struggling to keep his masterplan going and so that can't be a bad thing, can it?

It doesn't surpise me that Assad has fled like the coward he is, and now Syria is left to piece together some kind of military/Islamic state until who knows, maybe they get the democracy they were wanting?

Syria is not Afghanistan or Iran- it has a very different culture and history.

Being an optimist in the mess we're in maybe some good will finally come of all this.

The Syrian people should be helped to get some stability and good government- the alternative could be unthinkable...

Assad was certainly a cruel dictator, but whoever fills the gap left by him is equally frightening. The rebels/freedom fighters, call them what you will, appear to be a mixture of Islamic State, Al Quida (sorry, unsure of spelling) and a rag bag of others. Life does not look anymore rosy for the Syrians under any of this lot than it was under Assad.

Assad’s overthrow is welcome news. But our enemy’s enemy is not our friend.
The Telegraph this evening.

According to the BBC, Assad is in Moscow. I would guess he didn't have too many options. Not sure how this is going to pan out for him.

Now he no longer wields any significant power, he must have limited use to Putin.

"Syria's former president Bashar al-Assad arrives in Moscow after fleeing Damascus, Russian state media report

Russia was a key ally of Assad's regime - the former president and his family will now reportedly get asylum there"

(the Russians have said that they will be able to keep their bases - I hope not.)

(BBC)

The asylum seekers here said they feared Assad.
Now he is gone, time to return and rebuild? 🤔

Photos in the press ofAssad’s garage/hangar filled with millions worth of cars including Ferraris, Aston Martins, Rolls-Royces, BMWs.

How many millions of pounds worth of Overseas Aid did the UK government give to Syria? Syria was given c. £3 million in October. We must be fools.

FriedGreenTomatoes2

The asylum seekers here said they feared Assad.
Now he is gone, time to return and rebuild? 🤔

Would you return now to a country which is in turmoil with no clarity about what is going to happen next, possibly a worse situation than when you left? I wouldn’t.

Due to demands of Ukraine Russia couldn’t support Assad
Turkey was supplying rebels with weapons and supplies
Israel has occupied Golan Heights buffer zone and is offering a peace deal

My guess is that Trump will offer the new government a lot of cash to rebuild Syria which will do a lot to stabilize the whole region, including Lebanon.

If the new government turns out to be pro Iran then the fighting goes on

David49
I think there’s more chance of the Ayatollah turning to christanty than this latest group turning to Iran.