Turkey’s President Barack Obama, the Syrian Refugee Crisis, and the American Military-Syria Connection: The Case for a New Government

The Turkish leader would also like to see more than 3 million Syrian refugees in Turkey head home. Some have already begun doing so. Turkish companies are well placed to rebuild Syria, which has been ravaged by more than a decade of war.

He would like to create a government in Syria that he could be proud of, according to the author of the book.

Many more developments are still to come. Here’s a preliminary look at what is going to happen in Syria.

The U.S. military carried out an unusually large airstrike Sunday on Islamic State bases in central Syria. The U.S. says this was done because a group of Islamic State fighters gathered to train, perhaps hoping to take advantage of the turmoil in Syria. The U.S. hit 75 targets with a variety of aircraft.

President Biden said Sunday the U.S. would maintain this military presence. He said the US would work with Syrians as they try to cobble together a new government during a time of risk and opportunity.

However, President-elect Trump is striking a different tone. He said on social media that the US should not get involved and that Syria is not a U.S. problem.

Mouaz Moustafa, with the Syrian Emergency Task Force, an American aid group, said the U.S. forces have supplied humanitarian assistance to displaced civilians in a barren area on Syria’s southern border.

When you asked Syrians about the relationship between the American military and them, they were very much in favor of it.

Tehran and Syria: The “axis of resistance” as a strategic blow to Iran and its proxies at home and in the Middle East

Tehran has suffered a series of setbacks in the past. Persian Iran has spent four decades creating Arab partners and proxy in the region known as the “axis of resistance.” They’ve been tumbling over the course of a year.

Russia had its main partner for a long time in Syria. When the Syrian rebels were threatening Assad’s government in 2015, the Russian air force heavily bombed rebel areas and helped secure Assad’s hold on power.

Hezbollah has been weakened by its war with Israel, while Hamas in Gaza has been hurt by its own war with Israel.

“Losing Syria will deal a huge blow to Iran and its proxies in the region. “I think the leaders in Tehran must be worried about the situation, it’s why I think right now they’re feeling anxious.” At a time when the regime at home is being questioned by millions of Iranians, Iran’s strategy has been dealt a huge blow.

As Assad’s regime collapsed, Russia carried out only a few airstrikes, showing it was not willing to give significant support.

Russia places great value on the naval base and the air base it has on Syria’s Mediterranean coast. The only military bases in the Middle East that are Russia’s, are now very much at risk. Russia’s bombing campaigns have punished the rebels and Syrian civilians, so they may not be interested in keeping that military presence.

Israel fought the enemy: From the Golan Heights to the Zaadi Moslem. Israel and the Sunni groups in Syria

Israel was always at odds with Assad, but considered him the devil they knew. Israel acknowledged that Assad kept the frontier with Israel largely calm, even when the wider region was aflame.

Israel will now face a Syria that’s highly unpredictable and where Islamist groups could assume a prominent role. For the past year, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza Strip have been the two groups Israel has been fighting. Israel is wary of a similar group in Syria.

Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war and later annexed the strategic territory. Israel’s continued hold on the Golan Heights is certain to remain a major point of friction, regardless of who emerges in power in Damascus.

In the nearby village of Younine, Fatima Salah picks through the rubble of what was once her family home while reciting a verse from the Quran. Just last month, an Israeli airstrike reduced the house to a tangle of bricks, mangled metal and broken children’s toys.

The timing of the assault inside Syria has made some theorize that Israel and the US are behind it, aiming to weaken Assad and Iran. The US doesn’t support the group because it’s designated as a terrorist organization. A former Israeli military commander confirmed that his country armed anti-Assad rebels.

“The day it stopped over here, it started over there. It’s not a coincidence. It’s the same war,” Salah says. Speaking of the Sunni groups such as HTS, she says: “They are next to us, they are on our borders … Aleppo, Hama, Damascus, and then us.”

Her fear is real. The same people who recently took over cities in Syria went behind her house a decade ago. They were part of the previous HTS.

The message was sent to Hezbollah, which was fighting alongside Assad’s forces in Syria. These incursions drew Lebanon deeper into the Syrian conflict, forcing the Lebanese Army and Hezbollah to respond with military operations to reclaim these areas.

For people like Ali Zgheib, the consequences of this violence are personal. An international law student, Zgheib balances his academic pursuits with his family’s tradition of shepherding. He is similar to his fathers and grandfathers in that he herds sheep along the Lebanon-Syria border.

The alliance cost a lot. There are craters from Israeli strikes on the road leading to his village. Hezbollah uses this border to ferry weapons from Iran, across Syria and into Lebanon. Those supply lines are what Israel has been targeting.

“I’d make a deal with the devil if it meant protecting my village,” he says. “But Hezbollah is not the devil. They’re our neighbors, the kids we grew up going to school with.”

For Nasrallah, the border beyond his village of Ras Baalbek is more than a line on a map. There is a place of pain and memory. He remembers crossing the hills as a boy to go to Boy Scouts in Syria.

HTS in Syria: Is there an end of the revolution? The Syrian refugee crisis on the frontier between Lebanon and Syria, a source of stability and security

A revolution in Syria is almost complete after more than a decade of civil war. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) — a jihadist group once linked to al-Qaida — has stormed across the country in recent days, capturing Idlib, Aleppo, Homs and Damascus in less than two weeks.

The situation is not very frightening, according to Nasrallah. “There is no bloodshed or executions. We’re not worried if it stays like this in Syria. But, if the groups want to come to Lebanon, we will be prepared.”

Younine, Lebanon, near the border with Syria, has a wind chill that blows cigarette smoke from the hand of Rafaat Nasrallah as he gestures toward the horizon.

Nasrallah’s Christian village sits between two wars. A ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel is barely holding. Another, in Syria, where rebel Islamist insurgents have swept across the country, defeated government forces and toppled the dictatorial regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Lebanon already hosts the highest number of refugees per capita worldwide, according to the United Nations, with government estimates indicating approximately 1.5 million Syrian refugees residing in the country since 2012. The influx has put a strain on Lebanon’s resources and infrastructure.