NIAC Statement on Assad Regime Collapse
Washington, DC – NIAC Policy Director Ryan Costello issued the following statement regarding reports that Bashar Al Assad has fled Syria and the Assad family’s reign has collapsed: “Assad’s government was a brutal dictatorship that engaged in heinous acts of repression and torture. We hope his fall can bring Syrians a government that respects their rights and reflects their desires. We celebrate the liberation of political prisoners who were long tortured by the government, in some cases for decades, in the most heinous conditions. At the same time, a power vacuum risks threatening the people of Syria and the region with more chaos and violence, and the potential prominence of groups with historic ties to al-Qaeda and ISIS underscores the risks that the near future holds. “There is a message in Assad’s collapse for Iran’s rulers: a country run solely through the state’s monopoly on violence is inherently unstable. Iran faces deep grievances in society, and the government’s tool of first resort is repression rather than finding a way to improve the lives of its people via economic improvement and social reform. Revolution often seems impossible up to the point when it is inevitable, as Assad’s rapid fall demonstrates. The
