The sudden fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has been met with both celebration and trepidation; relief and joy for the end of a torturous regime but anxiety over what the future holds, as Israel bombs Syria to annex more land, Turkeye’s Erdogan applauds the collapse of a rival power and the US government loots Syria’s oil supply. Then there’s the question of HTS, an al-Qaeda offshoot that led the uprising. Will Congress and the White House no longer consider HTS a terrorist? Will the former enemy now become a partner in imperial crime as the US and Israel deepen their foothold in the region? Then there’s Ukraine and Russia. How will the fall of Assad impact that US proxy war? These questions beg for answers as the US and Israel continue their genocide in Gaza despite global condemnation.

Vijay Prashad is an Indian historian, journalist and political commentator. He is the Executive Director of Tricontinental Institute for Social Research, Editor of LeftWord Books, Chief Correspondent at Globetrotter, and a senior non-resident fellow at Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China. Ideologically a Marxist, Prashad is well known for his criticism of capitalism, neocolonialism, US exceptionalism and Western imperialism. Prashad is the author of thirty books, including Washington Bullets, Red Star Over the Third World, The Darker Nations: A People’s History of the Third World and The Poorer Nations: A Possible History of the Global South.

Vijay Prashad reflects on the latest developments in Syria and what they mean for the West Asia region.

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