In December 2024, the Syrian people made history when they overthrew Bashar al-Assad, ending his nearly 25-year brutal dictatorship and his family’s 54-year reign over the nation.
Assad fled to Russia as Syrians were left to pick up the pieces and decide whether to get behind new emerging leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, the ex-militant formerly known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, who has vowed to take Syria toward democracy, rebuild the country’s shattered economy, and safeguard its religious minorities.
However, Sharaa is the former leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a Syrian militant group with ties to Al Qaeda. In this interview, veteran journalist and author of Syria: Civil War to Holy War?, Charles Glass, casts doubt on whether the ex-militant is the right leader for post-Assad Syria. He tells Mehdi that while Sharaa’s new constitutional document does cover minority rights, the word ‘democracy’ is nowhere to be found in it.
“He’s not even pretending that he’s going to bring a democracy to Syria. He’s bringing an Islamic state to Syria in which Christians and others are allowed to take part, but it seems from the point of view of the Christians and the Alawites and the Druze that they’re taking part on sufferance – and that’s not acceptable. Syria is a very rich country, ethnically and culturally. And all of these groups have been there for centuries and form a vital part of the fabric of the society,” Glass argues.
While Sharaa is undeniably popular in Syria, Glass draws comparisons to the beginning of the Assad family’s reign. “He [Hafez al-Assad] was cheered by even larger crowds and people picked up the car he was driving and carried it on their shoulders through the streets of Damascus. And the reason that they did this is that the man who preceded him, Salah Jadid, was so hated that they welcomed any change.”
He notes that there’s still “so much uncertainty in Syria,” and believes that rebuilding after the Assad regime will be complicated. “ISIS is still there, American troops are still there, Israel controls part of the south, Turkey controls part of the north. There is much disenchantment among minority communities in Syria who don’t like this new order. They may find foreign benefactors who will give them money and weapons, and a kind of war could erupt as a result of that.”
Watch the interview above to hear the full discussion, including what a peace agreement between Israel and Syria could look like and how dangerous it is for Donald Trump to lack a clear strategy for the Middle East.
You can click here to buy a copy of Glass’s book, Syria: Civil War to Holy War?, and if you’ve already read it, feel free to share your review of it in the comments below! And be sure to check out the Zeteo book club for more book recommendations.
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