Politics
Analysis: Assad was a brutal dictator. Will Syria's new leaders be any better?
WASHINGTON — The stunning overthrow of Syrian President Bashar Assad by Islamist rebels half a century after his family took power raises an old question when it comes to regime change in the Middle East: Will the new governing forces behave any better than those that have been deposed?
“The Assad regime has fallen,” President Biden declared Sunday from the White House. “It’s a moment of historic opportunity for the long-suffering people of Syria.”
“It’s also a moment of risk and uncertainty, as we all turn to the question of what comes next,” Biden said.
In a matter of weeks, the rebels achieved what the United Nations, the U.S. and other Western powers long tried but failed to do. The Russian government announced late Sunday local time that Assad and his family had arrived in Moscow and were being given asylum, Russian state news agencies reported.
Decades of brutal rule by Assad has left Syria fragmented ethnically, religiously and politically. The victorious insurgency is also divided. The leading group, Hayat Tahrir al Sham, known as HTS, traces its roots to the terror organizations Islamic State and Al Qaeda but claims to have reformed.
Long concerned about HTS taking power, Washington continues to designate it a terrorist group, which will complicate any dealings with it.
The rebel victory also scrambles regional relations. It deals a major setback to Assad’s allies Iran and Russia while boosting Turkey, which backed the HTS and will probably be Washington’s main conduit to Syria’s new leaders.
The U.S. backed a different rebel group, the Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, a Kurdish militia that helped defeat Islamic State but that Turkey considers a terrorist group.
Clashes between the SDF and Turkish-backed factions were already being reported on Sunday.
Israel, meanwhile, is glad to see the departures of an Iran-backed Assad but not exactly thrilled at having Islamist leaders next door. The country was already bolstering a buffer zone along the border between the Israel-controlled Golan Heights and Syria and joined in the bombing of a small number of sites inside Syria.
By any measure, the immediate future of Syria will be an unstable and potentially violent melange of competing groups, intense jockeying for power and settling of scores. Among worst-case scenarios are a deepening civil war or the conversion of the once-wealthy and now devastated country into a haven for militants such as the Islamic State.
After 24 hours monitoring what the White House called the “extraordinary” developments in Syria, Biden convened his National Security Council Sunday for updates and planning before speaking to the American public.
“We will remain vigilant,” Biden said, pledging to keep militants at bay and “do whatever we can to support” the Syrian people “to help restore Syria after more than a decade of war and a generation of brutality from the Assad family.”
By contrast, Donald Trump, who becomes president in about six weeks, said on his social media platform that the U.S. should “stay out of it.” “This is not our fight,” he said.
Similarly, as president in 2019, he declared that “someone else should fight” in Syria and in a much-criticized move ordered the withdrawal of most U.S. troops posted there, clearing the way for Turkey to move in and attack the United States’ Kurdish allies.
Several hundred U.S. troops remain in Syria, officially to counter any resurgence by Islamic State.
There are other looming issues, however, that might demand a U.S. role, officials said.
Syria will need huge amounts of humanitarian aid, especially if some of the millions of citizens who fled as refugees during the last decade of war begin to return to the ruins of their former homes.
Also, critically, U.S. officials expressed concern about Assad’s large stockpiles of armament, including missiles and chemical weapons, that could end up in the hands of the rebels. Assad notoriously used chemical weapons on his own people to put down rebellion and dissent.
Trump’s pick for director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, voiced support for Assad after a 2017 visit to Syria. She said she doubted U.S. intelligence reports that he had used chemical weapons inside his country.
For many ordinary Syrians, however, the principal concern is how minorities will be treated. Some, like the Alawite Shiite Muslim faction to which Assad’s family belonged, as well as some Kurds and Christians, are seen as having colluded with the regime. Most of the rebels are Sunni Muslims.
The first government to congratulate the opposition victory in Syria was Afghanistan’s radically conservative and repressive Islamic Taliban.
Ahmed Sharaa, the bearded commander of HTS, has sought to portray the group as a reformed and more moderate faction than its past associations suggest. He has preached tolerance and pluralism, although his rule over Syria’s Idlib province where HTS has held sway only displayed the most minimal version of such policies. Christians, for example, have been allowed to attend church.
“These sects have co-existed in the region for hundreds of years,” he told CNN in an interview last week as the rebels were advancing toward Damascus. “No one has the right to erase another group.”
He promised a “transition to a state of governance and institutions” and even suggested HTS could disband having achieved its military victory.
That would be a very unusual transition in the Middle East, where players who gain power tend to hold on to it.
The Assad regime began in 1970 with Bashar’s father Hafez. With an insidious intelligence service, routine imprisonment and torture of dissidents and iron-fist control of media and public speech, the Assads maintained a ferocious and violent control of the Syrian population.
The Arab Spring protests of 2011 led to a brutal crackdown and eventually a civil war that killed an estimated 500,000 people.
Assad remained in power with military help from Russia, Iran and Hezbollah, the Iran-backed political and military faction based in Lebanon. Over the last year or so, those three allies all lost their ability to defend him.
Russia is overextended in its nearly three years of war in Ukraine. Iran has been battered by Israel from outside and dissent and economic turmoil on the inside. And Hezbollah has been vastly weakened by Israeli assassinations and bombardments.
It is expected that Syria’s new leaders will close the Russian air base and port on the Mediterranean coast. Iran has lost a large portion if not all of its land and air routes to Lebanon and Hezbollah, its proxy there.
In his speech Sunday, Biden claimed some credit for the recent turn of events in Syria, as uncertain as its future may be.
“Our approach has shifted the balance of power in the Middle East through this combination of support for our partners, sanctions, diplomacy and targeted military force when necessary,” he said.
Politics
Trump announces peace deal with Iran, declares Strait of Hormuz will reopen: ‘Let the oil flow!’
JUST IN: Trump announces Iran deal opens Strait of Hormuz, lifts naval blockade
Fox News chief foreign correspondent Trey Yingst covers President Donald Trump’s major announcement of a peace deal with Iran. Trump’s ‘Truth Social’ post details the toll-free opening of the Strait of Hormuz and removal of the U.S. naval blockade, allowing for increased oil flow. The deal aims to bring peace to the Middle East after months of conflict.
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President Donald Trump announced Sunday that the United States and Iran have officially reached a peace agreement, marking a major diplomatic breakthrough that would reopen the Strait of Hormuz and end the U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports.
“The Deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran is now complete,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
“Congratulations to all! I hereby fully authorize the toll free opening of the Strait of Hormuz, and, simultaneously herewith, authorize the immediate removal of the United States Naval blockade. Ships of the World, start your engines. Let the oil flow!”
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, whose country has served as a mediator, was the first to announce the peace deal, saying a signing ceremony is scheduled to take place Friday in Switzerland.
TRUMP SAYS HE’S CANCELED IRAN STRIKES, ADDS POTENTIAL DEAL-SIGNING ‘TO BE ANNOUNCED SHORTLY’
President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House on June 11, 2026, in Washington, D.C. (Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Trump added that the Strait of Hormuz will reopen once the parties formally sign the agreement.
“With the opening of the Strait upon the signing of the Deal on Friday, for purposes of mine removal, oil will flow on both ends again for the Region, and the World!” he said.
IRAN REVEALS 10-POINT PLAN FOR PEACE WITH THE US – HERE’S WHAT’S IN IT
President Donald Trump looks at Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif speaking in Egypt in 2025, following the signing of the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas. (Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters)
According to Sharif, the deal includes the termination of military operations across the region, including in Lebanon, where Iran-backed terrorist proxy Hezbollah has been engaged in conflict with Israel.
“Both sides have declared the immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon,” he said.
Additional details of the agreement, including any provisions related to Iran’s nuclear program, were not immediately released.
Iran’s deputy foreign minister said talks with the United States on a final and more comprehensive agreement will take place during a 60-day ceasefire period, according to Reuters.
The outlet reported that the future of Iran’s nuclear program will be addressed in upcoming negotiations. Trump has long maintained that Iran cannot be in possession of a nuclear weapon and has repeatedly vowed to prevent Tehran from developing, acquiring or obtaining one.
Trump further praised his administration for securing the agreement.
“This Great Deal will bring Peace and Security to the whole Region,” he said. “Many presidents have tried to make Peace with Iran, and all have failed before me. The Leaders of the Region have, for the first time, found a President who can help them achieve real Peace.”
Sharif also thanked the United States and Iran for their “commitment to finding a diplomatic solution to the conflict,” as well as Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey for their contributions to the mediation effort.
With the agreement now in place, mediators are expected to facilitate a series of meetings this week that could lay the groundwork for technical negotiations and the official signing ceremony, Sharif said.
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The peace deal would formally end the high-stakes conflict that began on Feb. 28, which disrupted roughly 20% of global oil shipments that pass through the Strait of Hormuz and contributed to higher energy prices worldwide.
It comes roughly one year after Israel initiated massive strikes on Iran during Operation Rising Lion. The strikes sparked a 12-day conflict between the nations before Trump ordered strikes on a trio of nuclear facilities later that same month.
Fox News’ Ashley J. DiMella and Reuters contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON — President Trump said Sunday that the United States and Iran have reached a framework agreement to end the war in the Middle East, a breakthrough in months of negotiations aimed at ending the conflict.
The deal, described by diplomats as a memorandum of understanding, commits Tehran to forgo the development or acquisition of nuclear weapons in exchange for helping reopen the Strait of Hormuz, and the paced release of its assets frozen overseas, upon the signing of the deal Friday in Switzerland.
Trump said he has also authorized “the immediate removal of the United States Naval blockade” on Iranian imports.
“Ships of the World, start your engines. Let the oil flow!” Trump wrote in a social media post Sunday evening. It was the president’s 80th birthday.
The full details of the agreement have not been released. Many details — including how Tehran would give up, destroy or dilute its fissile material, or whether Iran would continue treating the international strait as its sovereign waters — will continue to be negotiated in the coming days.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said Sunday that mediators are planning to hold a series of meetings this week to “lay the foundation for the technical talks and the official signing ceremony.”
“We would like to thank the United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Iran for their commitment to finding a diplomatic solution to the conflict,” Sharif wrote in a post on X.
The Associated Press reported that negotiations on outstanding issues like Iran’s nuclear program would continue over the next 60 days, according to two senior Pakistani officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Vice President JD Vance told Fox News that the White House is “still figuring out the logistics” on whether he or Trump will attend the signing ceremony.
“What we know is that we have a lot of work to do, but a very big win for the American people tonight,” Vance said.”We are just going to keep on working at it, keep on driving energy prices down, keep on ensuring that region of the world is less than a basket case and finally, and most importantly, celebrate, that we can say with confidence Iran will never have a nuclear weapon.”
Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Kazem Gharibabadi, confirmed the agreement on state television but said Iran would not start implementing it until it was signed on Friday. He said the deal followed over 14 hours of talks in Tehran with a representative from Qatar, another mediator.
Iranian state TV showed a banner asserting: “US was forced to sign an agreement to end the war.”
Iran’s commitment to refrain from pursuing nuclear weapons would simply repeat a vow Iran has made several times before, including in its signing of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and its nuclear deal brokered with international powers under the Obama administration over 10 years ago.
Iran has 972 pounds of uranium that is enriched up to 60% purity, a short, technical step from weapons-grade levels of 90%, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency. Under the 2015 international agreement with Iran abandoned by the first Trump administration, Iran’s uranium enrichment was capped at less than 4%, monitored by IAEA inspectors.
The vagueness of the new agreement, the demand for further negotiations to flesh out its details, and the pacing of sanctions relief for Iran are all likely to draw criticism of the president, who launched his political career in 2015 by attacking President Obama’s newly signed nuclear deal as a historically bad agreement.
That deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, followed two years of painstaking negotiations that were predicated on a similar, yet more detailed framework, called the JCPOA.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a Sunday morning interview on CBS’ “Face the Nation” that the the difference between the JCPOA and how the Trump administration is handling negotiations is the “threat of military force.”
“The huge difference is we did this from a position of strength,” Hegseth said. “That military might will stay as long as necessary.”
And, as in 2015, Israeli leadership across the political aisle remains deeply skeptical of the agreement, pronouncing they will not be bound by a deal to which they are not a party.
In a phone interview with the New York Times on Sunday afternoon, Trump called Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, a “very difficult guy.”
“To be honest with you, he should be very thankful to us for doing this. Because if Iran had a nuclear weapon, Israel wouldn’t be around for two hours,” Trump said.
Since the U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran that started the war Feb. 28, there have been 3,468 confirmed deaths in Iran, according to independent monitors. In addition, 13 U.S. service members have been killed, and the Israeli war with Hezbollah has killed 2,679 in Lebanon as well as 23 Israelis, including eight civilians.
It was back in late May that construction began on the towering, claw-like superstructure that now sits complete on the South Lawn of the White House, ready to stage Ultimate Fighting Championship bouts on Sunday, President Trump’s 80th birthday.
The spectacle is estimated to cost more than $60 million, according to Mark Shapiro, who is the president of U.F.C.’s parent company, TKO Group Holdings. (Mr. Trump purchased between $15,000 and $50,000 worth of stock in TKO weeks ahead of this event at the White House that he has been promoting for months).
Here’s a look at the fighting arena.
The Claw
The Claw is a 600-ton steel arch built in Belgium. Jumbo-sized and star-spangled, with huge television screens hanging from every corner, it coexists strangely with the rest of its environs.
It towers over the old willow oaks and magnolia trees planted long ago by past presidents on the gentle slope of the South Lawn. It towers over the White House itself. Spectators seated in the topmost section on Sunday night will be on eye level with the Truman balcony.
The Octagon
This is the Octagon, the caged ring in which men will beat one another to a pulp.
The cage is an eight-sided feat of marketeering, its every angle prominently displaying the name of some sponsor who’d paid big bucks to have their brands juxtaposed against the ultimate backdrop.
Among them: Live Trade on Polymarket, Bud Light, Pit Boss Grills, Total Wireless, Morgan & Morgan (“Dial #Law”) and Toyo Tires. “Crypto.com” is carved into each metal step leading into the ring.
The Venue
The Claw is not all. That venue can only fit a little more than 4,000 people, so a space for a watch party capable of hosting more than 70,000 people has been set up on The Ellipse, which is the park just south of the White House gates.
Back on the White House lawn, just behind the Claw, there are large tents set up. On Saturday afternoon, the day before the fight, a crew of six motocross riders will be performing stunts on the lawn, including backflips 45 feet in the air.
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