The Assad regime’s abrupt collapse has thrust America’s long-standing military mission in Syria into uncertainty, as the Pentagon’s chief battlefield partner fights for survival and a U.S. leader skeptical of foreign military commitments prepares to retake power.

For much of the past decade, Assad’s regime, bolstered by unwavering support from Iran and Russia, brutally suppressed dissent. What began as an uprising in 2011 evolved into a devastating civil war that eventually settled into an uneasy stalemate.

Qatar and Jordan are the latest regional countries to send delegations to meet with Syria’s new leaders, including Ahmed al-Sharaa, head of Hayʼat Tahrir al-Sham.

Iran’s foreign ministry said on Monday it has ‘no direct contact’ with the new Syrian government since the fall of top ally Bashar al-Assad and that its presence in the country was solely for defeating the Islamic State (ISIS).

Iran is still grappling with the fallout from the fall of the Assad regime. It invested heavily in Assad’s rule in Damascus and likely expected that it would continue for many years. However, Assad fell from power on December 8.

The Syrian regime’s collapse came more quickly than the rebels had dreamed — the circumstances were both serendipitous and part of a larger global realignment.

Israel is celebrating the fall of Assad because it breaks the noose that Iran had been patiently tightening around Israel’s borders in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria. Tehran’s pincer is now broken and rendered useless. From the point of view of Israel’s wider conflict with the Islamic Republic, the collapse of Assad’s regime is a strategic victory.

Tehran’s increasingly vulnerable position in the region has energized opposition activists and spurred hardliners to endorse the pursuit of nuclear weapons.

The ascendance of Sunni Islamist rebels in Syria should be viewed with great caution by Western powers, but the Assad regime’s collapse disables a critical node in Iran’s regional proxy network, a counterterrorism expert explains.

One of Israel's goals in its campaign in the Gaza Strip has been to also weaken Iran. The fall of the Syrian dictator suggests the strategy is paying off. This could open up new options for the U.S.

DUBAI (Reuters) - 2025 will be a year of reckoning for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his country's arch foe Iran. The veteran Israeli leader is set to cement his strategic goals: tightening his military control over Gaza,

The sudden collapse of President Bashar Assad’s government in Syria will be felt far beyond the borders of that country alone. The fall of Assad is another blow to his Lebanese ally,