A New Era for Syria: Challenges Ahead After the Assads

Mon Dec 08 2025 13:34:30 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time)

With Bashar al-Assad's regime in exile, Syria is entering a new phase under interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa. But while the removal of the Assads brings hope, the nation faces significant challenges ahead.

Syria's landscape has changed after the departure of renowned dictator Bashar al-Assad, making way for interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa. Although the Assads' absence seemingly provides relief, the country remains in ruins, grappling with sectarian tensions and uncertainty about governance. As Sharaa navigates international relations, including attempts to stabilize ties with the West, Syria’s future hangs in the balance amidst ongoing violence and the need for reconstruction.

A year ago, the war that President Bashar al-Assad seemed to have won was turned upside down.

A rebel force had broken out of Idlib, a Syrian province on the border with Turkey, and was storming towards Damascus. It was led by a man known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, and his militia group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). Jolani was a nom-de-guerre, reflecting his family's roots in the Golan Heights, Syria's southern highlands, annexed by Israel after it was occupied in 1967. His real name is Ahmed al-Sharaa.

One year later, he is interim president, and Bashar al-Assad is in a gilded exile in Russia. Syria is still in ruins. In every city and village I have visited this last 10 days, people were living in skeletal buildings gutted by war. But for all the new Syria's problems, it feels much lighter without the crushing, cruel weight of the Assads.

Sharaa has found the going easier abroad than at home. He has won the argument with Saudi Arabia and the West that he is Syria's best chance of a stable future.

A year ago, the new masters of Damascus, like most of the armed rebels in Syria, were Sunni Islamists. Sharaa, their leader, had a long history fighting for al-Qaeda in Iraq, where he had been imprisoned by the Americans, and then was a senior commander with the group that became Islamic State.

But in one year, Sharaa has transitioned from a jihadist past to a leader for a diverse Syria, negotiating relationships with global powers and attempting to bring stability amidst ongoing violence and community distrust.