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The foreign policy story of 2024: The Fall of Assad in pictures

The foreign policy story of 2024: The Fall of Assad in pictures

The surprise regime change is remaking the geopolitical face of the Middle East in real time.

Reporting | Middle East

The surprise attack on Bashar Assad's Syrian strongholds in December led to an almost immediate collapse of his family's dynasty and his dictatorship. This, after the Middle East had already been rocked by Israeli wars against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. As of December, over 45,000 Palestinians in Gaza and over 4,000 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, have been killed and millions displaced.

Top photo credit: The fall of the Syrian regime, Syrians celebrate Bashar al-Assad's escape. Damascus, Syria, December 8, 2024 (Mohammad Bash/Shutterstock)
Syria Should the US take credit for Assad's downfall?Top image credit: Damascus University students stand on the toppled statue of the late Syria's President Hafez al-Assad, father of Bashar al-Assad, after Syria's Bashar al-Assad was ousted, in Damascus, Syria, December 15, 2024. REUTERS/Ammar Awad

Assad's fall in December was heralded by Sunni Syrians, many of whom had been victims of Assad's brutality and displaced in the country's Civil War, which began in 2011 after Arab Spring related uprisings.

A Hayat Tahrir al-Sham fighter in SyriaTop Image Credit: A rebel fighter stands atop a military vehicle as he carries a Hayat Tahrir al-Sham flag in Saraqeb town in northwestern Idlib province, Syria December 1, 2024. REUTERS/Mahmoud Hassano/File Photo

External forces are at work all over this conflict. Turkey, Israel, the United States — news reports after Assad's fall suggested that even Ukraine had a hand in sending HTS drones for the battlefield.

Members of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) a flag in Deir al-Zor, after U.S.-backed alliance led by Syrian Kurdish fighters captured Deir el-Zor, the government's main foothold in the vast desert, according to Syrian sources, in Syria December 7, 2024. REUTERS/Orhan Qereman

The fate of the Kurdish independence movement, which has been backed by the U.S., is at the end of the year unknown. The Turks want to extinguish it, while the Kurdish Syrian Defense Forces have held on to valuable, oil rich territory in the northeast of Syria and are not likely to go easily. There are also 2,000 U.S. troops in the region and the U.S. has been engaging in airstrikes inside the country, reportedly against ISIS.

syria assad resignationtop photo credit: Men hold a Syrian opposition flag on the top of a vehicle as people celebrate after Syrian rebels announced that they have ousted President Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria December 8, 2024. REUTERS/Firas Makdesi

The world watches as HTS claims power and wants the U.S. terror designation and sanctions lifted in order to begin rebuilding the country after more than a decade of war. Despite the calls by new leader Ahmad al-Sharaa, who leads HTS, for moderation and amnesty, reports in the waning days of 2024 tell of revenge crimes and raids by militias against Assadists in villages and towns. Meanwhile, al-Sharaa has said it may take up to four years for new elections in Syria.


The fall of the Syrian regime, Syrians celebrate Bashar al-Assad's escape. Damascus, Syria, December 8, 2024 (Mohammad Bash/Shutterstock)
Reporting | Middle East
Kurdistan drone attacks
Top photo credit: A security official stands near site of the Sarsang oilfield operated by HKN Energy, after a drone attack, in Duhok province, Iraq, July 17, 2025. REUTERS/Azad Lashkari

Kurdistan oil is the Bermuda Triangle of international politics

Middle East

In May, Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared that a strong Kurdistan Region within a federal Iraq is a "fundamental and strategic component" of U.S. policy. Two months later, that policy was set on fire.

A relentless campaign of drone attacks targeting Iraqi Kurdistan’s military, civilian, and energy infrastructure escalated dramatically in July, as a swarm of Iranian-made drones struck oil fields operated by American and Norwegian companies. Previous strikes had focused on targets like Erbil International Airport and the headquarters of the Peshmerga’s 70th Force in Sulaymaniyah.

The attacks slashed regional oil production from a pre-attack level of nearly 280,000 barrels per day to a mere 80,000.

The arrival of Iraqi National Security Advisor Qasim al-Araji in Erbil personified the central paradox of the crisis. His mission was to lead an investigation into an attack that Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) officials had already publicly blamed on armed groups embedded within the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF)—components of his own government.

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Sudan
Sudanese protester stands in front of a blazing fire during a demonstration against the military coup, on International Women's Day in Khartoum, Sudan March 8, 2022. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig

Sudan civil war takes dark turn as RSF launches 'parallel government'

Africa

In a dramatic move last week, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) announced the selection of its own prime minister and presidential council to compete with and directly challenge the legitimacy of the Sudanese government.

News of the new parallel government comes days before a new round of peace talks was expected to begin in Washington last week. Although neither of the two civil war belligerents were going to attend, it was to be the latest effort by the United States to broker an end to the war in Sudan — and the first major effort under Trump’s presidency.

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starvation gaza
Top photo credit: A doctor checks Jana Ayad, a malnourished Palestinian girl, as she receives treatment at the International Medical Corps field hospital, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Deir Al-Balah in the southern Gaza Strip, June 22, 2024. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem /File Photo

Mainstream media largely sidelined starvation story, until it couldn't

Middle East

The headlines are increasingly dire.

  • “Child Dies of Malnutrition as Starvation in Gaza Grows” (CNN, 7/21/25)
  • “More Than 100 Aid Groups Warn of Starvation in Gaza as Israeli Strikes Kill 29, Officials Say” (AP, 7/23/25)
  • “No Formula, No Food: Mothers and Babies Starve Together in Gaza” (NBC, 7/25/25)
  • “Five-Month-Old Baby Dies in Mother’s Arms in Gaza, a New Victim of Escalating Starvation Crisis” (CNN, 7/26/25)
  • “Gaza’s Children Are Looking Through Trash to Avoid Starving” (New York, 7/28/25)

This media coverage is urgent and necessary—and criminally late.

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