All right, we've also tracking the latest now in the
conflict that has been much overshadowed by the wars in
Gaza, Lebanon and Ukraine.
So we're talking about now they want the 13 year
civil war in Syria.
A rebel coalition opposing President Bashar al-Assad launched a major
surprise attack last week and have since taken control of
Aleppo, Syria's second largest city.
The Syrian military has responded with a number of air
strikes against rebel held areas.
The opposition run White Helmet rescue services.
At least 25 people have been killed so far in
those strikes.
The Syrian civil war broke out in 2011 during the
Arab Spring.
A wide coalition of opposition forces, which at times included
terrorist groups, have been trying to overthrow Assad ever since.
And I want to bring in CB CS Margaret Evans.
She's in Beirut for us, following the story for us.
Margaret, good to see you.
So talk to us a bit more now as, as
we said, we put a lot of our emphasis or
had been putting a lot of our emphasis on what
was going on in, in, in, in Gaza and in
Ukraine.
But the significance here of what we're seeing and the
timing of this insurgency agency, given, of course, the recent
events in the region, what can you tell us?
I think the real significance has been what's been happening
where I am, which is Lebanon and the Israeli war
that followed, the Gaza war on Hezbollah, which of course
has been a key backer of Syria over the years.
It's a militant group with a very powerful army here
in Lebanon.
At least it had a powerful army before the Israeli
conflict.
It's certainly what, you know, as was a surprise to
Syrian government forces, the speed with which these opposition groups
took Aleppo.
You know, over the weekend, we saw video of opposition
fighters, rebel fighters on Syrian tanks that had been either
captured or abandoned by Syrian troops as they withdrew down
the the highway towards Damascus.
But I, you know, analysts would say it perhaps shouldn't
be such a surprise what's happening given what's happening here
in Lebanon and in the geopolitical world.
So I mentioned Hezbollah over the years, they've sent fighters
to support Bashar al-Assad.
They've been dramatically weakened by the Israeli war against the
militant group.
And so too then has Iran, because Hezbollah was one
of the main assets of and, and its access of
resistance, as it calls it.
So a lot of uncertainty there.
On top of that, you also have Russia.
Russia was key in the Syrian government forces being able
to retake Aleppo back in 2016, a brutal aerial bombardment
campaign against opposition forces, many civilian casualties in that effort.
You have to remember that during this conflict, the Syrian
war, half a million Syrians have been killed.
So clearly, analysts in the region say what's happening is
you see the opposition forces try to take advantage of
this weakening of the al-Assad regime.
Yeah, indeed, it's sort of a reminiscent of what we
saw during the Arab Spring now, but sort of things
now, you know, becoming even more so forceful on this.
So with that being said then, Margaret, what's next for
Syria in the midst of all of this?
Well, I wouldn't write off Damascus at this stage by
any means.
This is still a very fluid situation.
You have seen Iran come out saying we will continue
to support Syria.
There are Iranian militias in Syria.
We've heard about Iran backed militias from Iraq also moving
into play and Russia has said it will continue to
support.
But as you say, you now have a lot more
movement.
It's impacting, as people on the ground will tell you,
civilians.
You have Syria divided basically in three.
There's government controlled territory, there are opposition controlled territory, and
there's Kurdish controlled territory in the southeast as well.
You've got people who've been expelled from Aleppo in the
past now wanting to go to regain, you know, reclaim
their houses that they've been forced out of all these
years.
But you also have people in Aleppo fearful of these
Russian Syrian air strikes trying to leave.
And another development to watch is the Kurds in the
southeast, because they say that the Syrian opposition groups fighting
the government regime are supported by Turkey and that Turkey
will likely try to use the opposition forces to attack
the Kurds.
Turkey is traditionally suspicious of Kurds because of separatist Kurdish
groups in Turkey itself.
But you have to remember that these Kurdish forces in
the South of the northeastern part of Syria are supported
by the United States.
They're the same troops credited with defeating ISIS.
It is where you have a lot of the ISIS
militants captured during those years still being held in massive
prison camps.
So there's a lot of uncertainty here.
Uncertainty here.
And you're going to be hearing Western governments trying to
use this to encourage all of the warring parties to
get back to some kind of a peace process.
But that seems extremely unlikely at this moment in time.
Margaret, thank you so much for the CB CS Margaret
Evans for us in Beirut.
Yeah.