CSPAN - Washington Journal Benham Ben Taleblu
Aired: 2024-12-17
Duration: 08:47

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[00:00:48]  A conversation now on Syria and the future of the Middle East.
[00:00:51]  Ben Taliblu is back with us.
[00:00:54]  He's a senior fellow specializing in the Middle East at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
[00:00:58]  Let's start with what factors will determine what comes next in Syria after the fall of Assad and what role could the United States...
[00:01:09]  Well, it's a pleasure to be back with you and happy holidays to you and the viewers.
[00:01:14]  Listen, there's nothing short of historic than what's going on in Syria right now.
[00:01:19]  For over half a century, the Assad family has ruled that country from Damascus.
[00:01:24]  And really since 2011, 13 plus years now, there's been various evolutions of the revolution which started peacefully.
[00:01:45]  I would still say I would say that we are in merely the next phase of the Syrian Civil War.
[00:02:05]  There is still fighting between various militia.
[00:02:29]  So explain who those various groups are and...
[00:02:33]  Who's backing them, whether it's the United States or other regional allies, and how that plays out?
[00:02:39]  Sure.
[00:02:40]  So up until very recently, the Assad regime, Assad himself, an Alawite, a minority sect of Islam, more heterodox and orthodox, you could say, was backed by two large state patrons, the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Russian Federation.
[00:02:55]  And in Syria...
[00:02:56]  Russia had historically what really the Russian Empire had wanted for many years, which is a warm water port.
[00:03:01]  They had that at Tartus and then later on they had an air base as well at Hameem.
[00:03:06]  Basically this was Russia's foothold into the Middle East and it had been a partner of the Assad regime and the Assad family.
[00:03:13]  We're good to go.
[00:03:35]  ...democratic forces who are largely but not exclusively Kurdish, backed by the United States.
[00:03:40]  When the US was looking for a partner in Syria to pick, it wasn't...
[00:03:44]  We're good to go.
[00:04:08]  We're good to go.
[00:04:30]  I think?
[00:04:34]  Subtitles by the Amara .org community.
[00:04:48]  We're good to go.
[00:05:15]  As the Syrian Civil War continues into this more political phase, what role will the U .S. play and will the U .S. begin by trying to leverage the threat of withdrawal as other actors are looking to double down, particularly Turkey, which is a NATO country?
[00:05:29]  Remind folks what the U .S. force is doing there right now and what have they been doing amid this drive onto Damascus and Assad fleeing.
[00:05:40]  Well, amid the drive on Damascus, they've essentially been sitting there.
[00:05:43]  Since Damascus fell, however, the U .S. has had airstrikes against ISIS positions in central and eastern Syria.
[00:06:10]  You mentioned what...
[00:06:13]  Under what authority the U .S. force presence was there, the U .S. was there to fight ISIS, so this was part of the counter -ISIS campaign, and the U .S. had played a pretty powerful role there, both thwarting some of the ISIS advances from Iraq into Syria,
[00:06:27]  as really supporting the counter -ISIS campaign on the ground and on the air.
[00:06:34]  We're going to go into more of this with Ben and Ben Talibloo of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies this morning.
[00:06:40]  I want to give you a chance to call in and ask your questions, though.
[00:06:42]  A lot's happened in Syria.
[00:06:44]  We're good to go.
[00:07:11]  And here, forgive me, I'll be tipping my hand as to how I see this individual.
[00:07:17]  He remains subject to a U .S. bounty.
[00:07:19]  He has a U .S. bounty on his head.
[00:07:21]  He's currently the head of HTS, Hayat Tahrir al -Sham, a designated terrorist organization.
[00:07:26]  He's led manifestations of formerly al -Qaeda -affiliated terrorist groups in Syria, beginning with Chepet al -Nusra.
[00:07:34]  Then that really collapsed in 2016.
[00:07:36]  There was a 2017 rebrand.
[00:07:38]  And then beyond that 2017 rebrand, you have the group, which is really more of a coalition or a constellation of some Salafi jihadist organizations who were actually effective fighters against the Assad regime as well.
[00:07:50]  We're good to go.
[00:08:10]  Starting from 2016, some of those people actually end up saying, well, look, how come the U .S. has had targeted airstrikes on a whole host of al -Qaeda officials, not just in Syria, but in Iraq, but really around the world, but has never touched this individual despite having a bounty?
[00:08:24]  Does that mean there is some laissez -passer or some covert relationship there?
[00:08:29]  Sometimes that line of thinking can get into conspiracy if taken to its fullest conclusion.
[00:08:33]  But nonetheless, it does raise questions.
[00:08:35]  How come this person was allowed to kind of remain on the battlefield while having... Subtitles by the Amara .org community