The regime of Bashar al-Assad faces extreme pressure from the recent offensive by rebel groups, the most notable among them being Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, who have controlled vital territories. It is likely one of the most important shifts in the balance of rebel forces because for the first time since 2016, the Assad regime lost control of a city of strategic importance. President Assad has vowed to “crush this rebellion” but leans heavily on the support of Russia and Iran, even though both are extremely limited in what kind of effective intervention they could offer.
This makes way for questioning the city and the regime’s influence against maintaining stability in Syria while the overall losses of Aleppo begin to narrow the regime’s grip on the confused maze of Syria. Against a backdrop of increasing violence and civilian dislocation, regional and international actors monitor this growing humanitarian disaster.
