A great many actors had a hand in the fall of Syria¡¯s dictator, Bashar Assad: Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the Islamist group that led the offensive; Turkey, which nurtured and supported HTS; the myriad Syrian groups and people who gave a hated tyrant a final push.
But Assad¡¯s fall was also the work of a dead man, Yahya Sinwar.
When Sinwar ordered Hamas¡¯s attack on Israel in October 2023, he meant to revolutionize the Middle East. Today, the region is being remade, just not as Sinwar intended: An astonishingly successful Israeli offensive has left Hamas and the rest of Iran¡¯s ¡°Axis of Resistance¡± in ruins and has now claimed Assad as its latest victim.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.