MIAMI – A Venezuelan opposition leader who was granted political asylum in the U.S. took to X on Sunday to celebrate that Arab socialists were no longer in power in Syria.
The Russian foreign ministry announced Bashar Assad, who had been the president of Syria since 2000, left the country after agreeing to transfer power. It was the end of a regime that started with Assad’s father, Hafez al-Assad, who was the president from 1971 until his death.
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“The fall of a dictator is a reason for hope for those of us who fight against tyrants,” Juan Guaido wrote in Spanish on X next to photos of Hugo Chávez with Assad. “And hope comes hand in hand with the testimony of refugees, political prisoners, and the expectation that this process, which we know will be difficult, will end in peace and freedom.”
The change in Syria follows the geopolitical implications of Russia’s war in Ukraine and the Iran-backed Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023, in Israel. The fighting that followed weakened Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shia Islamists who supported Assad. The U.S. backed Sunni Muslim Kurds in Syria.
Reuters reported Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei went into hiding after Israel killed Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasralla during an attack outside of Beirut. On Sunday, Assad was also in hiding. The Associated Press reported Anas Salkhadi, the Syrian rebels’ commander working with Abu Mohammed al-Golani delivered a speech that aired on state TV.
“Syria is for everyone, no exceptions,” Salkhadi said. “Syria is for Druze, Sunnis, Alawites, and all sects. We will not deal with people the way the Assad family did.”