By: Roya Pour Bagher *

“The reality is that we have common enemies and can play a key role in regional security,” Abu Mohammad al-Golani, leader of the HTS regime in Syria and self-proclaimed president, recently told a Jewish publication in Damascus, referring to the future of the Arab country’s relations with the Israeli regime.

The so-called “common enemies” appear to be none other than the Axis of Resistance. This became evident when the HTS regime authorities arrested two senior members of the Palestinian Resistance group Islamic Jihad, following the US-imposed ban on Palestinian groups, as well as deadly attacks by HTS forces on the Lebanese border.

During a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace, Al-Golani suggested a possible shift away from Syria’s historic stance against normalization with Israel.

This shift was explicitly confirmed on December 6, 2024, when a HTS regime commander stated in an interview that they are open to engaging in friendship with Israel and that their only enemies are former Syrian President Bashar al-Asad, the Lebanese Islamic Resistance Movement (Hezbollah) and the Islamic Republic of Iran.

This raises an inevitable question: Is Syria now a truly free state or a mere puppet carefully and cunningly molded by Washington?

Syria has long been the epicenter of geopolitical conflicts in West Asia. Western powers have consistently portrayed it as a nation fighting for “freedom,” even as they orchestrated its destabilization to advance their own strategic and murky interests in the region.

For the West, a fractured Syria - or the fall of the democratically elected Al-Asad government - has always meant three fundamental objectives: cutting off arms supplies to the Palestinian and Lebanese Resistance movements (thus weakening the Axis of Resistance), plundering Syrian oil and gas resources, and facilitating the Zionist regime’s settler-colonial project.

Syria’s geopolitical importance cannot be underestimated, and its political alignment has shaped regional power dynamics for decades.

Aware of Syria’s strategic role and ability to resist Western interference and imperialist objectives, the U.S. and its allies funded and trained hostile “opposition” groups, presenting themselves as defenders of freedom - their preferred slogan to justify imperialist agendas in the Arab country and beyond.

According to former U.S. Ambassador to Syria Robert S. Ford, the United States spent at least $12 billion on military and civilian efforts in Syria between 2014 and 2017 alone.

These funds supported military operations and politicized humanitarian aid, which exclusively targeted “opposition” controlled areas. In other words, at least $12 billion - in addition to previous expenditures - was wasted with the aim of bringing about regime change in the country.

It is essential to note that the US and its allies not only financed armed groups that perpetrated terrorist acts in Syria, but also imposed sanctions that devastated the Syrian economy, directly affecting the lives of innocent civilians.

A United Nations report reveals that the economic crisis resulting from Western sanctions was one of the main drivers of poverty in Syria, pushing 82% of the population into a situation of extreme precariousness.

Syria has served as a key channel for the supply of arms and logistical support to Resistance movements in the region. A collapsed Syria means a blow to the support received by Hezbollah and Palestinian groups, thus limiting their capacity to resist Zionist expansion.

It is widely known that the Israeli regime pursues its interests in a fragmented and unstable Syria. Immediately after the fall of the Al-Asad government, the world witnessed Israel’s illegal occupation of 400 square kilometers of Syrian territory, while the international community remained passive.

No action was observed by Al-Golani or his regime to challenge or resist this illegal appropriation of Syrian land, nor did they react when Israel bombed Syrian military installations that could have strengthened HTS military capabilities in the future.

Meanwhile, regime change advocates and HTS supporters claimed that a “free Syria” would lead to a “free Palestine.” However, the reality has been exactly the opposite, and the silence of these same advocates is now so overwhelming as to be almost palpable.

As U.S. political analyst Jeffrey D. Sachs recently warned at the Antalya Diplomacy Forum, the war in Syria did not originate with Bashar al-Asad, but “came from Washington.”

Sachs further explained Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s desire to shape West Asia “in Israel’s image,” which involves overthrowing any country that opposes the regime’s illegal occupation and expansion, in line with his “Greater Israel” project.

The operation Sachs was referring to was dubbed “Timber Sycamore”, whereby feared takfiri terrorists - including HTS - were trained to overthrow Al-Asad, resulting in hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths and the destruction of the country’s infrastructure.

Whether by military, economic or diplomatic means, Western powers have relentlessly intervened in Syria’s course to promote their own interests at the expense of regional peace and stability.

And all these facts - and many more - intertwine to evidence a single reality: Syria has always been a piece on the chessboard played by Western powers and their Arab allies to consolidate their dominance in the region.