Bashar al-Assad has fallen, and with him, a grand destructive project has collapsed. We must always keep this in mind when discussing Syria and its future, what it should look like, how we should deal with it, and what we should expect from it.
The fall of Assad is not like the fall of Saddam Hussein. In Iraq, a regime and a party, the Baath, fell. However, in Syria, a criminal who governed at the behest of a destructive sectarian project fell- a project that began by destroying the social fabric of Syria and turning the country from a state into a hotbed of conspiracies.
He had turned Syria into a massive prison even before the revolution, fueled conflict in Iraq, and turned Syria, since the fall of Saddam's regime, into a corridor for terrorists where they could receive training and forged documents. He made Damascus a meeting for most Gulf terrorists.
Bashar destroyed institutions in Lebanon, engineered most of the assassinations in Beirut alongside Hezbollah, sought to rip apart Lebanon's social fabric, and paralyzed Lebanese government institutions until his fall.
Today, Assad and the sectarian destruction project have fallen- a political earthquake that the region has not yet absorbed- and less than a week later, we are seeing demands, criticisms, and doubts about Syria's new leadership, especially Ahmed al-Sharaa and his allies.
That is understandable and expected, but it is not how we should deal with Syria, especially not so early on. What we need today, in dealing with the new Syria, is not to believe in promises or raise expectations. Instead, we, both Syrians and its Arab neighbors, must all work together.
Syrians must now raise their voices, not in conflict but in discussions, presenting their visions and ideas and remembering that a long road lies ahead. The aftermath of the collapse of brutal dictatorial regimes in the region has often been cruel and difficult. We need to be cautious and learn from the past.
With regard to the Arab countries, the moderate states must engage and provide advice, protecting the new Syrian project from being ideologically hijacked or sabotaged. The sectarian terrorist project that fell with Assad will not forgive what happened, and it has yet to recover from the shock.
The Arab states, particularly the Gulf countries, with Saudi Arabia at the forefront, must communicate with the new Syria, establish rules of engagement, offer political advice and assistance, and seek to lift sanctions on the new Syria international community, developing legal frameworks that ensure the past is not repeated.
Today is not the time to criticize the new rulers, as they are presumed to be temporary. There should be a timeline for the transition that will shape future governance in Syria. This process encompasses drafting a new constitution and the legal agreements and systems that build on it.
That does not mean silencing the media, which would be a mistake and a crime. It means offering responsible and constructive criticism. We must be vigilant to avoid supporting a new ideological project in Syria that serves outdated agendas that were defeated with Assad's fall and are now poisoning the well.
We should offer criticism when it is needed, call for caution, comment, and advise, but without undermining a new project that seeks to recover from a sixty-year disaster engendered by the Assad family and their allies.
This is what Syria needs from us. That is how we should deal with it because the road is long, difficult, and full of dangers.
