#bashar-al assad

[liberalsarecool]

Bashar al-Assad was run out of the country.

The long-suffering people of Syria now have the chance to build a better future.

Al-Assad fled to Russia. Remember that.

[deadpresidents]

What are the odds that the supreme leader escapes to Russia or China like Assad and there is change in Iran like Syria

Zero chance. Ayatollah Khamenei is not Bashar al-Assad. Khamenei is a true believer who expects to be martyred, and in fact, welcomes it. Khamenei was a fighter -- he was arrested and probably tortured and eventually exiled by the Shah of Iran. He helped launch the Iranian Revolution and overthrow the Shah, then became President when his predecessor was assassinated, and almost immediately was nearly assassinated himself by a bomb that left him severely wounded to this day. That was in 1981 and he recovered and kept on serving as President while Iran fought a brutal war against Iraq. This is not a nepo dictator who inherited daddy's regime. When Ayatollah Khomeini died, Khamenei was quickly chosen as Supreme Leader and he's held on to that position for 35+ years. And when they say "Supreme Leader", they mean it. He's in charge of the executive branch, legislative branch, and judicial branch of the Iranian government. He chooses the candidates who can even run for President of Iran. He's the Commander-in-Chief of all of Iran's armed forces. Oh, and he's also the religious leader for the Shia branch of Islam in Iran, so he's also a theocratic leader. The Ayatollah is a guy who famously lives a very ascetic and religious-based life, so he's not worried about loading billions of dollars onto planes and helicopters so he can buy a nice penthouse in Moscow like the Assads. If he wasn't 86 years old and crippled from that 1981 assassination attempt, he'd probably be leading Friday prayers and daring the Israelis to take him out.

Iran is not Syria. Iran is going to fight. It's going to fight Israel and, if we attack them, Iran is going to fight the United States. There have always been deep divisions inside Iran, so there was a question whether the Iranian people would rise up if there was some destabilization of the regime, but Israel keeps taking out military commanders and Iran just keeps filling the vacancy. And there was an article in the New York Times today that suggests that the attacks are unifying Iranians (gift link to bypass paywall), not opening a path for opposition to overthrow the regime:

"Mohammad Ali Abtahi, a reformist politician and a former vice president, said in a telephone interview from Tehran that Israel had miscalculated Iranians' reaction to the war. Mr. Abtahi said that the deep political factions that are typically in sharp disagreement with one another had rallied behind the supreme leader and focused the country on defending itself from an external threat. The war has 'softened the divisions we had, both among each other and with the general public,' Mr. Abtahi said. Israel's attacks have set off a resurgence of nationalism among many Iranians, inside and outside the country, including many critical of the government. That sense of common cause has emerged in a torrent of social media posts and statements by prominent human rights and political activists, physicians, national athletes, artists and celebrities. 'Like family, we may not always agree but Iran's soil is our red line,' wrote Saeid Ezzatollahi, a played with Iran's national soccer squad, Team Melli, on social media. Hotels, guesthouses and wedding halls have opened their doors free of charge to shelter displaced people fleeing Tehran, according to Iranian news media and videos on social media. Psychologists are offering free virtual therapy sessions in posts on their social media pages. Supermarkets are giving discounts, and at bakeries, customers are limiting their own purchases of fresh bread to one loaf so that everyone standing in line can have bread, according to videos shared on social media. Volunteers are offering services, like running errands to checking on disabled and older residents... ...Narges Mohammadi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and the country's most prominent human rights activist, has spent decades in and out of jail, pushing for democratic change in Iran. But even she warned against the attacks on her country, telling the BBC this past week that 'Democracy cannot come through violence and war.'"

[standosart]

Syria is free! 💚💚💚💚💚💚

tomorrow, Palestine will be too

[hero-israel]

"Jews are white Europeans"

Here are Bashar Al-Assad's children, I believe their names are Cindy, Blake, and Tyler.

[destielmemenews]

"Russia requested an emergency session of the U.N. Security Council to discuss Syria, according to Dmitry Polyansky, its deputy ambassador to the U.N., in a post on Telegram.

The arrival of Assad and his family in Moscow was reported by Russian agencies Tass and RIA, citing an unidentified source at the Kremlin. A spokesman there didn’t immediately respond to questions. RIA also said Syrian insurgents had guaranteed the security of Russian military bases and diplomatic posts in Syria."

source 1

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[batboyblog]

I must say watching Assad's government into Syria fall the fuck apart in like a week was very enjoyable, at this stressful time I keep smiling that Assad is gone

[folklorespring]

Hospitals in Syria, destroyed by asaad and russia forces.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian%E2%80%93Syrian_hospital_bombing_campaign

[victusinveritas]

From Rebecca Solnit:

"My God. I was out all day today. Bashar Al Assad, the Butcher of Syria, has fled, his infamous prison/death camp/torture center has been freed, and rebels have taken Syria as far as I can tell. What a week. Insurrectionary Georgia. Coup-repelling South Korea. Now this.

The Guardian reports: When Islamist militants swept into her home town of Aleppo little over a week ago, Rama Alhalabi sheltered indoors as fear engulfed her. Forces loyal to president Bashar al-Assad, who had sought to reassure residents that nothing was happening, suddenly deserted the city. But as the insurgency pushed south, rapidly seizing control of the city of Hama on the road to Damascus, Alhalabi’s fears about life under militia rule have slowly ebbed. Instead they have been replaced by fears that her friends in the army will be abandoned by their commanding officers as Assad’s regime loses its grip.

“People in Aleppo are feeling more comfortable now we’re further from the areas under the regime’s control,” said the 29-year-old, while still using a pseudonym in fear Assad could retake the city.

“At the same time, I have many friends serving in the army and I don’t want them to get hurt. People with power inside the regime will protect themselves, and they will leave the poor fighters who were forced to join the army to face their awful fate alone.

“Things changed insanely fast,” she added. “We can barely believe what’s happening.”

As militants spearheaded by the group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) massed outside the city of Homs and rebel forces said they had entered the vast southern suburbs of the capital, rapid change swept across Syria. The Syrian army declared it had “redeployed,” its forces in two restive provinces south of Damascus in the latest thinly-veiled message of retreat, days after they withdrew from Hama. In under a week, five provincial capitals across the country were suddenly no longer under Assad’s control.

“We can hear the bombing nearby, and we are praying, hoping – and waiting,” said Um Ahmad, an elderly native of Homs, sheltering with her husband at home as the fighting drew close enough to be audible.

Assad loyalists fled the city, while people who stayed only have a couple of hours’ electricity each day and what goods are left in the shops are unaffordable. Those remaining in Homs waited to see if this might be the end of Assad’s rule, while an insurgent commander told his regime’s forces inside the city that this was their “last chance to defect before it’s too late”.

Um Ahmad was consumed by a single thought, that she might finally be able to see her sons again after a decade of separation and exile. “Most people are frightened but they fear the regime’s revenge more than anything else,” she said, as Russian and Syrian airstrikes pummelled the countryside around Homs and Hama.

When a popular uprising swept cities across Syria in 2011 calling for Assad to go, it initially looked as if demonstrations could topple another regional autocrat. But the Syrian leader swiftly turned the state’s weapons on his own people to crush dissent. As the uprising slowly morphed into a civil war, Assad freed jihadist prisoners from his fearsome detention system to alter the forces rising up against him, before relying heavily on his allies in Russia and Iran to provide the military muscle he used to reclaim control.

The civil war killed over 300,000 people in 10 years of fighting, with some estimates putting the true toll at twice that number. Tens of thousands remain in detention, including 100,000 believed missing or forcibly disappeared in Assad’s prisons since 2011, and subject to what United Nations monitors have described as systematic torture. Over 12 million people have been displaced.

Assad kept control of Syria’s major cities for years, as battle lines from the country’s years-long proxy war hardened. HTS ruled over a mountainous pocket in the northwest, cut off from the outside world. The group appeared a dim threat to Assad until they suddenly launched an offensive that saw them take control of Aleppo within days.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/dec/07/syria-assad-damascus-hayat-tahrir-al-sham-insurgents

[girlactionfigure]

[voidingintotheshout]

Not to be a pill, but I would really like it if the accelerationists and hornyposters would stop fixating on the United healthcare thing for right now when the country of Syria has just exited a 13 year long, bloody Civil War, and is now rebuilding their government after Bashar al Assad has fled the country. Inshallah they will build a country from the rubble that will be stable and safe for their people. I would love it if that would be a trending topic on Tumblr at some point. I’m sure there are some cute people in Syria that y’all could fixate on.

[deadpresidents]

I thought this was a blog about us presidents, no one comes here to read your thoughts on the mess in syria.

Well, first and foremost, this isn't a request line. I started this blog to write about whatever I want to write about and I've been doing that for 15+ years. It's not changing anytime soon. I don't care what you came here to read. It's not for you. If anybody finds anything interesting, it's an added bonus.

The collapse of a regime that has existed longer than I've been alive and has had an iron grip on one of the oldest continuous civilizations in the world is historic. And it's interesting to me, and I'll write about whatever interests me whenever I am interested by it. These moments should be fascinating to anybody who has an interest in history. You never know where the story is going to go from here, and that alone is interesting, as well. Just because it isn't "your" history doesn't mean it isn't historic.

When Bashar al-Assad succeeded his father in 2000, there was actually a significant amount of optimism around him. He was a London-educated ophthalmologist who was never intended to be Syria's leader but was thrust into the role after the death of his brother in a car accident. It was thought that he might be a reformer who would lead differently than the tyrannical rule of his father. There was hope that some real changes might take place in parts of the Arab world in 1999 and 2000 when King Hussein of Jordan, King Hassan II of Morocco, and Hafez al-Assad of Syria -- longtime rulers in their respective countries -- all died and were replaced by sons in their mid-30s (King Abdullah II in Jordan, King Mohammed VI in Morocco, and Bashar in Syria). Jordan and Morocco weren't in the same situation as Syria, especially considering the decades of close connections King Hussein and King Hassan II had with the United States, but there was still genuine hope about Bashar al-Assad in 2000.

Twenty-four years later, we know the path of history that Assad took, but these moments are hugely important -- not just for Syrians or Arabs or the Middle East in general, but for the entire world. What happens in Syria matters here. Don't forget that there are American soldiers on the ground in Syria. I'm from Sacramento and live in Los Angeles -- those two cities are almost twice as far apart as Damascus is from Jerusalem. Damascus is closer to Beirut than Sacramento is to San Francisco. Russia, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Israel -- these countries are all intricately connected with Syria in various ways and have been for decades. If you aren't interested in what's going on in Syria today, that's your prerogative. If you don't think what's going on in Syria today makes a difference here, you are disturbingly ignorant.

[workersolidarity]

🇺🇸⚔️🇸🇾 🪖 🚚🚛 🚨

REPORT: UNITED STATES OCCUPATION CONTINUES SUCKING WEALTH OUT OF EASTERN SYRIA

The official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) is reporting that the American military occupation in eastern Syria continues to suck wealth and resources from the West Asian nation.

According to SANA News, the US occupation is stealing wealth from the areas it continues to illegally occupy in the Hasakah province of eastern Syria, using its forces to load tankers and trucks with Syrian resources including oil and grains.

Local sources in the Al-Yaarubiya countryside, near the Iraqi border, in the Al-Hasakah Governate, told SANA that a US-occupation convoy consisting of 69 vehicles, including 45 tankers loaded with Syrian oil, along with 24 trucks loaded with grains stolen from silos in the Hasakah province, left Syrian territory through the illegal Mahmoudiyah crossing headed for US bases in Iraqi territory.

The report was published by journalist Nisreen Othman on April 22nd, 2024.

#source

@WorkerSolidarityNews

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

by Melanie Phillips

The eagerness to assume that Islamists have reformed themselves accompanies the West’s suicidal refusal to see what is so plainly the case—that whether it involves Shia or Sunni Muslims, Hezbollah or the Houthis, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham or the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamists are waging world war against unbelievers wherever they are.

The Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, set in train a series of events that have shaken the geopolitical kaleidoscope. Tiny Israel is now well on the way to smashing the Shia axis and—in the words of a member of the Iranian regime—becoming the foremost power in the region.

This also represents a shattering defeat for the strategy of former President Barack Obama, which has been continued by the Biden administration. This strategy was—remarkably—to empower the Islamic Republic of Iran.

To this end, the Obama and Biden administrations spared no effort to appease and protect the Tehran regime. In the war that followed the Oct. 7 pogrom, Washington refused to respond appropriately to repeated Iranian attacks while putting Israel under enormous pressure also not to do so.

And, after Donald Trump won the presidential election last month, the United States renewed a controversial sanctions waiver that will allow Iran access to some $10 billion in payments from Iraq.

The stupendous developments in the Middle East are a cause for unprecedented optimism. With the likely destruction of the Shia axis, the way will be set for Saudi Arabia finally to make its peace with Israel and thus end, once and for all, the Arab war against the Jewish state. The cause of the Palestinian Arabs, who never were the issue until the West chose to make them so, would simply evaporate.

To envisage this is not to fall into the trap of wishful thinking. The dangers for Israel and the free world remain acute and unresolved. Iran is poised to get the nuclear bomb, and there are fears that with its back to the wall, it will now do just that.

But Iran now has no military defenses or proxy shields. This is therefore the moment to destroy totally its nuclear program and maybe finish off this evil regime altogether.

To do this, however, Israel needs America to be involved. Will Trump be willing to do this? Or will he believe that he alone can make a deal that will tame the Iranian regime?

Any such deal would be illusory. Iran has lied about its activities for more than four decades and won’t stop now.

The old order has been shattered. Bad actors have been weakened; others are now empowered. It will take wise heads indeed to turn this extraordinarily complex set of developments into a real leap for peace in the world. It can be done. Are there the leaders to do it?

[eretzyisrael]

[folklorespring]

Don't forget Syria!