section_path: Impacts/Geopolitical impact
section_name: Geopolitical impact
paragraph_text: Geopolitical impact
  
  The fall of Assad triggered a high-stakes geopolitical scramble as regional powers continued vying for influence in the fragmented country. Countries like Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the UAE, Turkey and Qatar pursued competing interests, with Egypt and the Gulf states seeking to prevent the rise of Islamist factions, particularly the Muslim Brotherhood, while Turkey and Qatar back groups sympathetic to these ideologies. Israel, aiming to preserve its security, favours Syria's fragmentation to prevent any dominant hostile force from emerging. The U.S. continues to support Kurdish led groups and countering groups it designated as terrorists.
  
  Assad's government was an important ally of Iran and a long-standing member of the Iranian-led Axis of Resistance. Following the rebel capture of Damascus, the Iranian embassy was ransacked, with portraits of Iran's leaders torn down and discarded. Iranian diplomats and Quds Force commanders left Syria in haste. Many Syrians reportedly held Iran and Hezbollah responsible for supporting Assad's oppressive rule. In late 2024, after the fall of the Assad regime, Israel intensified its bombing campaign in Syria, targeting Hezbollah positions and Syrian-Iranian military assets. Moreover, the loss of Syria also disrupted Iran's supply routes to Hezbollah in Lebanon, weakening the group's arsenal and diminishing Iran's strategic foothold in the region. These developments, along with broader regional conflicts, further undermined the Iran-led Axis of Resistance.
  
  Western media also described the fall of Assad as damaging to Russian foreign policy, as it exposed Putin's increasing inflexibility and struggle to keep Russia's allies in Africa (Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger) afloat. Observers considered it probable that it would affect Putin's Ukraine strategy following the forced withdrawal of Russian forces from Syria, as well as his influence in Latin America and Africa.
  
  Several Western journalists, academics and geo-political analysts compared the fall of the Assad regime to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Meysam Karim Jaffari, a journalist affiliated with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, told reporters from The New York Times newspaper: "The Berlin Wall of unity for the Axis of Resistance has collapsed."