Assad regime ends in Syria as rebels claim Damascus

Syria faces “Herculean challenges” as the rebels who deposed former president Bashar Al-Assad try and transition into a government, Burcu Ozcelik, a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, a London-based think tank, said in a statement today.

“There are no easy or immediate answers to what kind of Syria will emerge in the post-Assad future,” she said. “The new administration that emerges in Syria will need economic lifelines to rehabilitate and rebuild a country that has endured multiple cruelties since the start of the 2011 war. “

Ozcelik added that the fall of Al-Assad “severely debilitated” Russia’s ability to project power in the country where it maintains a military presence. 

“It will take time and negotiations with the new Syrian administration, a yet to be determined entity, before it is clear what Russia’s stakes in Syria will be,” she said. “But this is now a radically transformed Syria, and Russia has no good options.”