Syria's al-Sharaa met Israeli security official in UAE
According to Al-Mayadeen, "Syrian interim president Ahmad al-Sharaa secretly met Israeli official Tzachi Hanegbi in Abu Dhabi, with the UAE's Mohammed Bin Zayed mediating talks on the occupied Golan and demilitarized zones."
https://x.com/joshua_landis/status/1943071540133707986
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https://www.reddit.com/r/SyrianCirclejerkWar/comments/1kz8g7j/i_was_a_wellknown_proassad_media_guy_ama/ Interesting read , not just information-wise (I didn't know Assad was THAT slavishly pro-Iranian even as he subtly or not so subtly tried to undercut Russia, when it should've been the other way around given how much stronger & more helpful Russia was after the midpoint of the civil war IMO) but also as an insight into the mind of a diehard Assad supporter who actually reached some degree of relevance.
https://www.reddit.com/r/SyrianCirclejerkWar/comments/1l7go7f/i_was_a_wellknown_proassad_media_guy_ama_2/ Part 2 is absolute delusional thinking about Alawites, wishcasting for a glorious Alawite revolution to carve out Alawistan
Bizarrely though he also describes in some detail how badly Assad fucked himself by the end, and how everyone he knew from back when the regime was still standing are now running like rats (gonna be hard to build an effective insurgency when you're getting as far away from the country you want to rebel in as you possibly can, after all)...
>First, Maher didn't fight his way out, he left around the same time as Bashar. In recent years, Maher became business focused, turned the 4th Division into a security branch, the military capabilities of the elite formations were degraded significantly, despite some personal efforts by Gaith Dala. There was rarely any training after 2023, and the equipment were either left to rust, or outright sold by Maher to the Libyan National Amry. Maher was playing Escopar, and running a large extortion and monopoly network thought the division's security office, he was completing with Asma, which was doing the same through the Khatib Branch. May be his focus on the money because he and his brother and Asma thought that money was the key for the survival in the regime, because the economy was on a downfall, but somewhere along the way they completely lost the plot, they put a lot of trust in henchmen who only wanted steal and make money, like Abu Ali Khodr and Hamid Hassan. The networks which were built to help overcome the sanctions in 2019, became the sanctions and wreaked havoc on the country's market. They tried to copy what Rami used to do, but Rami was much smarter, his work was way more balanced. So yeah, these were the final deeds of Maher, he and Asma were about to cause a famine in Syria.
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1-Complete disregard to the decay of the army and intelligence and showing no interest whatsoever in reforming them in any way.
2-Many decisions that further weakened the army and intelligence
3-Refusing all deals and political initiatives, for example the rapprochement with Turkey
4-Refusing to make any political settlement with moderate opposition
5-Refusing to give up on the toxic relation with Iran
6-Refusing to make the slightest economic reforms despite the economic collapse
7-Refusing to build real economic relations with allies, mainly Russia
8-Refusing to hear any advice from anyone on anything whatsoever
9-Personally, controlling all decisions in the country, from the smallest details
10-Prioritizing corrupt individuals in appointments, lower and higher levels.
All of these led to Dec 8, and they are all on Assad personally,
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All of the people I know or worked with including journalists, army officers and even guys from the intelligence are on the run, thankfully none has been hurt or captured yet. Some managed to flee, the last one, an officer who worked in a military hospital, crossed into Lebanon a week ago after disguising as a shepherd.
There are people who I don't know personally, including pilots, who are still hiding in the mountains on the cost and trying to find their way out. It is getting harder and harder however, just a few days ago I was told that the border with Lebanon was being mined. I tried to help many people, advised everyone to flee, but sadly they couldn't believe what happened, they were too shocked to take action.
I think in a month it will be over for anyone who is still in Syria. I expect mass arrests, especially that the amnesty cards they were given are about to expire. Mind you, all of these guys have no IDs or passports.
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I stopped supporting Assad as a person around 2014, when I felt that he was not really interested in ending the war. Every year since then, it became more and more clear to me that the man was delusional, and completely dispatched from reality, the last five years were especially hard because I could see the fall coming every time he was offered a deal and rejected it for no clear reasons. Still, I had to try to fix things from the inside, I had to try to alarm people within the regime, because in the end of the day, for people like me there was no switching side, and I knew very well who would replace him and you all saw what they did. So I didn't have the luxury to stop advocating for him.
I made very little money, barely lived of what I made, and none of it came from the regime itself, but from the friends and backers whom I made along the way.
So maybe he does know that his people are 1000% hosed but pride, unwillingness to consneed defeat, wishing really hard to not be counted among some of the stupidest losers in modern history, etc. is compelling him to fantasize about how glorious Alawistan will drive back the hordes of Sunni pigdogs presently tearing them to shreds.
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