Syria after Assad

In December 2024, after thirteen years of war, an alliance of Islamist rebels took Damascus in eleven days and Bashar al-Assad fled to Moscow. Their leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, once commanded al-Qaeda's branch in Syria. He now governs as president, has been received in Washington, Paris, Riyadh and Moscow, and is trying to reassemble a country in which Kurds, Druze and Alawites held their own ground, Turkey and Israel each keep troops, and most people are poor and half were driven from their homes.

Where it stands · September 2026

The IAEA secured 73 tons of uranium left from the Assad era and reported that a secret Syrian reactor had been nearly complete and weapons-capable. Israel's prime minister visited Mount Hermon on the Syrian side of the border and said Israel would not allow any terrorist army on its border. Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and Jordan condemned the Israeli incursion. Syria's al-Sharaa said the Golan Heights will remain Syrian. Japan partially lifted its sanctions on Syria and removed 16 Syrian organisations from its sanctions list.

What the dispute is about

Who the new rulers are. Men who fought under al-Qaeda's flag now promise a state for all Syrians. Most foreign governments have decided to believe them, or to act as if they do. Israel does not, and many Syrians from the minorities are unconvinced.

One state or several. The government wants one army and one administration. Kurds, Druze and Alawites, each with reason to fear it, want guarantees or self-rule.

Whose ground. Turkey backs the government and keeps forces in the north. Israel has taken territory in the south and strikes at will. Russia is negotiating to keep its bases. America is withdrawing.

How each side explains it

Damascus's account

Syrians freed themselves from a tyranny that killed hundreds of thousands of them. The new government dissolved the armed factions, including its own, held the first steps of a political transition, and is trying the old rulers in court. It threatens no neighbour and has said so to Israel directly. It asks for what any state is owed: that sanctions imposed on Assad not be kept on his victims, that foreign armies leave, and that armed groups inside the country accept a single state.

In our coverage

The post-Assad transition is legitimate; foreign forces should leave →229 headlines
Covered by:Anadolu Agency · Daily Sabah · TRT World · Euronews · Arab News · Reuters

Israel's account

A jihadist in a suit is still a jihadist. The men now in power came from al-Qaeda, their fighters massacred Alawites and Druze in 2025, and behind them stands Turkey, which seeks to replace Iran as the hostile power on Israel's northern border. After 7 October Israel will not wait for a threat to mature. It destroyed Assad's arsenal before it could change hands, holds the high ground, and will protect the Druze.

In our coverage

What each account leaves out

Damascus's leaves out that United Nations investigators found its own forces took part in the killing of some 1,400 people, mostly Alawite civilians, in March 2025; that no Syrian has yet voted for this government; and that foreign fighters hold ranks in its army.

Israel's leaves out that it seized Syrian territory within hours of Assad's fall, before the new government had done anything; that Damascus has repeatedly offered a security agreement; and that even Washington called its August strike an unnecessary escalation.

Turkey's leaves out that its army has held strips of northern Syria since 2016 and that the factions it paid committed documented abuses against Kurds there.

The minorities' leaves out that parts of each community served Assad's state and its security services to the end, and that the Kurdish administration ruled Arab-majority areas without elections of its own.

The ledger

The government

Wanted: recognition, money and one army.
Gained: all three on paper within twenty months.
Paid: the killings of 2025 stand against its name, and it governs a ruined economy by decree.

Israel

Wanted: no army it cannot trust within reach.
Gained: Syria's arsenal destroyed, the summit of Hermon.
Paid: isolation on this question even from Washington, and a confrontation with Turkey.

Turkey

Wanted: a friendly Damascus and no Kurdish force.
Gained

Words in dispute

Names and terms the sides do not share. This page keeps them out of its own voice.

liberation / Islamist takeover
transitional government / jihadists
regime remnants / Alawite civilians
buffer zone / occupation
integration / surrender
terrorists, said by each of several others

Syria after Assad

What the dispute is about

How each side explains it

Damascus's account

Israel's account

What each account leaves out

The ledger

The government

Israel

Turkey

Words in dispute

Primary actors

Also involved

Turkey's account

The account of the Kurds, Druze and Alawites

The Kurds

Syrians

What changed the course