ghazi52
THINK TANK: CONSULTANT
Red lines
Assad was backed by those Syrians who believed he was saving them from hardline Sunnis.As al Qaeda-inspired insurgent groups gained prominence, this fear resonated among minorities. Rebel forces sought to assure Christians, Alawites and other minorities they would be protected as they advanced this week.
Assad clung to the idea of Syria as a bastion of secular Arab nationalism even as the conflict appeared ever more sectarian. Speaking to Foreign Affairs in 2015, he said Syria’s army was “made up of every colour of Syrian society”.
But to his opponents, he was fuelling sectarianism.
The conflict’s sectarian edge was hardened by the arrival of Iranian-backed Shi’ite fighters from across the Middle East to support Assad, and as Sunni Muslim-led states including Turkey and Qatar backed the rebels.
Assad’s value to Iran was underscored by a senior Iranian official who declared in 2015 that his fate was a “red line” for Tehran.
While Iran stood by Assad, the United States failed to enforce its own “red line” — set by President Barack Obama in 2012 against the use of chemical weapons.
UN-backed investigations have concluded Damascus used chemical weapons.
A sarin gas attack on the rebel-held Ghouta in 2013 killed hundreds, but Moscow brokered a deal for Syria’s chemical weapons to be destroyed, averting a US response. Still, poison gas continued to hit rebel areas, with a 2017 sarin attack prompting Trump to order a cruise missile response.
Assad has denied accusations the state was to blame.
He similarly denied the army had dropped barrel bombs packed with explosives that caused indiscriminate destruction. He appeared to make light of the accusation in a BBC interview in 2015, saying: “I haven’t heard of the army using barrels, or maybe, cooking pots.”
He also dismissed tens of thousands of photos showing torture of people in government custody as being part of a Qatar-funded plot.
As fighting died down, Assad accused Syria’s enemies of economic warfare.
But while he remained a pariah to the West, some Arab states that once backed his opponents began opening doors to him. A beaming Assad was greeted by leaders of the United Arab Emirates during a visit there in 2022.
