The US Policy of Regime Change

President Trump told the new President of Syria, Ahmed al-Shara, that he was “attractive” and “tough”. Yet, the Wall Street Journal admitted President al-Shara “once fought with al Qaeda in Iraq as an anti-U.S. jihadist.”

The US State Department designated the group al-Shara founded, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a terrorist organization. In January, Washington dropped the $10 million dollar bounty it placed on al-Shara’s head. In July, Marco Rubio revoked HTS’s terror designation. But the leader and members of the terrorist organization led Syria’s new government.

Jack Khoury pointed out the hypocrisy in the Israeli news outlet Haaretz. President al-Shara, “had been a ‘mass murderer’ and a ‘war criminal’.” Suddenly, he was “Syria’s new hope.”

A.B. Abrams wrote the book “World War in Syria”. Abrams said, “Syria was one of the first French colonial possessions to gain independence under the immediate post-Second World War wave of decolonisation.” Since Syria’s independence, it has been a primary goal of US Foreign Policy to overthrow the Syrian government. Jack Khoury explained why. “Syria is a potential gold mine for investments – real estate, infrastructure, fashion, oil.” In 2019, President Trump admitted at the White House, “We left troops behind [in Syria], only for the oil.”

In 1949, the first coup in Syria “was engineered by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) against the government of President Shukri al-Quwatli.” Quwatli’s handpicked replacement was a general named Husní al-Zaim. “Pentagon cables described [Husní al-Zaim] as an ‘army supported dictatorship.’”

In July 1986, the CIA wrote a secret memorandum titled “Syria: Scenarios of Dramatic Political Change.” It outlined, “a number of possible scenarios that could lead to the ouster of President [Hafez] Assad or other dramatic change in Syria.” The reason was “US interests would be best served by a Sunni regime controlled by business-oriented moderates. Business moderates would see a strong need for Western aid and investment.”

In 2013, President Obama approved another covert CIA operation to overthrow the Syrian government. The New York Times said Operation Timber-Sycamore was “one of the costliest covert action programs in the history of the C.I.A.”

Economist Jeffrey Sachs wrote, “The CIA funded, trained, and provided intelligence to radical and extreme Islamist groups.” It cost American taxpayers “more than $1 billion.”

The U.S. government finally succeeded when Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham drove out Bashar al-Assad and installed the “moderate” al-Shara in power. Syria’s gold mine for investments was open to the international financial system and U.S. corporations. Meanwhile, around 1,400 US troops and five US military bases illegally occupy Syrian territory.

As Syria’s economy opened up to private investment, Washington ignored the atrocities committed by President al-Shara’s government. Reuters reported, from 7 March to 9 March 2025, “nearly 1,500 Syrian Alawites were killed and dozens were missing.” Reuters collected evidence to detail “the role of [al-Shara’s] government forces in the massacres.”

Jack Khoury wrote, “It reveals an ironclad rule of international relations – bloodshed doesn’t talk; money and interests do.”

Anton Porcari

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