Syria’s Collapse Would Reverebate Throughout the Mideast
The assassination of three Syrian military leaders loyal to President Bashar al-Assad may hasten the end of his family’s four-decade rule, an upheaval that would affect the security and influence of Israel, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Lebanon and other neighboring states.
Nabil el-Arabi, secretary-general of the Arab League, expressed anxiety among Syria’s neighbors over the regional fallout from the crisis when he warned yesterday of “a collapse in the situation not only in Syria, but for the whole region.”
If Assad’s regime is toppled, the ensuing power struggle might bring with it revenge killings by or against his minority Shiite Alawite sect, which controls the military and the economy, said Aaron David Miller, a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington.
Instability and sectarian violence could bleed into neighboring states such as Jordan, Lebanon, and Iraq.
No one knows whether the bombing yesterday inside a heavily guarded military compound in the capital of Damascus is the beginning of the end for the Assad family’s authoritarian regime, or what new government or chaos might follow it.