Assad’s ouster has raised urgent questions about the 2,000 troops who serve as a bulwark against ISIS and Iran.

For much of the past decade, Assad’s regime, bolstered by unwavering support from Iran and Russia, brutally suppressed dissent. What began as an uprising in 2011 evolved into a devastating civil war that eventually settled into an uneasy stalemate.

Will he walk the walk and not just talk the talk? And if he doesn’t win in the elections, will he peacefully stand aside for whoever does win?” one analyst said.

The Pentagon announced the US currently has “approximately 2,000” troops in Syria, more than double the previously disclosed number of 900, a Defense Department spokesperson said at a press briefing on Thursday.

President-elect Donald Trump plans to launch a mass deportation operation targeting millions of immigrants living in the U.S. illegally and with temporary protections once he takes office on Jan. 20, a challenging initiative that could split apart families and affect U.S. businesses.

"I believe there will be violent fighting, the end of which we do not know," a top Syrian Democratic Council official told Newsweek.

Losing Syrian military bases would hurt the Kremlin’s attempts to project power in the Middle East and Africa.

During the course of Syria’s brutal civil war, Assad used chemical weapons more than 300 times against his own citizens, causing thousands of casualties. The worst such attack was a barrage of sarin-filled rockets launched against the Damascus suburb of Ghouta in August 2013 that killed an estimated 1,

Former US National Security Advisor John Bolton said that the Kurds in Syria are in a position to help the US gauge the current stances of Syria’s de facto ruling group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which has previously been designated as a terrorist organization.

A key priority is the establishment of immediate sustainable, permanent ceasefires in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen. A non-aggression pact among MWADA states, coupled with collective regional monitoring, will help institutionalise stability and protect the region from external interference as well as from internal strife.