Among the hundreds of photos, videos and publications that accompanied the liberation of Syria, I was struck by the photo of the last meeting that brought together the new Syrian leadership, represented by Commander Ahmed al-Sharaa, with the leaders of the Turkish state, represented by its Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, on Mount Qasioun. As a Yemeni, I was bombarded with a number of questions.

Today we are faced with secularists who see the difference between secular and religious systems as embodied in the nature of the difference between Bashar al-Assad’s shaved beard and Ahmed al-Sharaa’s bearded beard, based on superficial assessments that focus on the presence or absence of hair on the face.

What does it mean for a “liberal” to be against the veil in Syria, and for the veil in Iran, to have fears about the possibility of imposing religious rule in one country, while he supports an existing religious rule in another country?

There are clear paradoxes in the three scenes: Riad al-Asaad represents the movement that witnessed the reality of the armed Syrian revolution, starting from the establishment of the Free Army, until its expansion in the first years and until its defeat after the Russian intervention. Al-Asaad’s awareness, morals and vision provided complete and total recognition of the credit for the victory of the next generation of revolutionaries, i.e. Operation Deterrence of Aggression and the Salvation Government.

Israel, with its well-known opportunistic behavior, did not waste a single moment after the events in Syria exploded, exploiting them in three directions. First, occupying large parts of Syrian territory, including about 180 km2 in the Golan Heights, the summit of Mount Hermon, and other areas close to Damascus, until its tanks, according to Israeli media reports, reached a distance of 12 km from the Syrian capital.

What Syria witnessed were two major events, not one. The fall of the Assad regime and the rise to power of the Islamic “Hayat Tahrir al-Sham” organization.