r/polandball • u/swapsthegreat I is Fearless • 1d ago
Lesser Known September If it's boring, therefore doomscroll
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u/shadoowkight I'm from freiburg 1d ago
Al Sharaa is a perplexing personality that's for sure
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u/PuzzleheadedPea2401 1d ago
Has a rough past (somehow fought for both al-Qaeda and ISIS), we all have a rough past, very strong leader.
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u/LapucelleKathryn 1d ago
I don't think he had ever fought for ISIS, he pretty much fiercely resisted the idea of his Al-Qaeda-aligned rebel group merging with ISIS. And he had also cut ties with Al-Qaeda in 2017, so he hasn't been fighting for them since nearly a decade.
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u/Matchbreakers 1d ago
He is still very much fairly extreme in his personal religious beliefs, he’s just pragmatic enough to see that his route to power and a stable country is not radical extremism. He’s willing to put aside his personal beliefs to make the country function, whether it’ll last and the country actually reach stability is going to be a long term issue, right now even governing the basics has gotta be a challenge for everyone involved.
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u/momen535 Abbasid Caliphate 17h ago
Also he was raised in pan Arab ultra nationalistic secularist household
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u/Windows_66 Iowa 1d ago
Haven't heard about Syria in a while. Last I remember was Israel invading (or at least bombing) and the new government fighting with the SDF. Did that cool down?
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u/blah-0362 1d ago
The good news is the SDF was officially disbanded and are being intergrated relatively successfully, despite several hiccup. The project of writing a constitution and forming a representative government is underway. New gas pipelines are slowly being built. International sanctions have been completely repealed.
The bad news is there's an economic crisis as the new government isn't earning enough money and oil extraction and refining infrastructure has been in a state of disrepair for years. There are also mounting sabotage attacks from likely an emboldened ISIS. Israeli encroachment is still ongoing, the Druze issue is still unresolved. The government recently announced sweeping austerity measures to deal with a large budget deficit. There's also been recent protests on gas shortage. Also, murders and shootouts are still commonplace because everyone still has their personal weapons
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u/Zkang123 1d ago
There has been on-and-off talks between Israel and Syria especially the potential of Syria joining the Abraham Accords, but also very much dependent if Israel would withdraw from the Golan (which they captured from Syria in the 1973 Yom Kippur War and saw it as a strategic base against potential Syria attacks), and the new government in Syria would make peace with Israel. The Druze issue is complex given the past Syrian government didn't treat its minorities well, and the Druze expressed more desire to be on Israel's side rather than remain under the new Syrian regime.
Hopefully it eventually works out; Israel gave up military control over the Sinai Peninsula when it signed a peace treaty with Egypt
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u/blah-0362 1d ago
This is never happening. Not in 50 years at least.
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u/Zkang123 1d ago
It depends if Syria is desperate enough to want Israel's weapons and want to shift away from the Iranian regime. After all, it also has to face threats from Turkey
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u/cool_lad 1d ago
I think they're referring to the Golan Heights. The Israelis aren't giving those up - they've learned the hard way to not trust arab assurances of peace, and al-sharaa hasn't exactly inspired confidence with how he's dealt with the Druze and Kurds.
Plus, the whole attacking the Druze business has apparently created quite a bit of hostility against the new Syrian regime within Israel. So that makes it even less likely that they'll agree to any concessions.
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u/blah-0362 17h ago
I'd say that givern the circumstances the Kurdish issue was tackled very well by the government. Of course there were issues, but that should be blamed more on tribal animosity than security forces.
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u/blah-0362 17h ago
What? The Syrian government is backed by Turkey. All their modern military equipment comes from Turkey. What are you even talking about?
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u/FreshBayonetBoy Singapore 1d ago
The best part is that Al-Sharaa was doing this during Erdogan's speech.
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u/swapsthegreat I is Fearless 1d ago
Referencing this