The U.S. and Russia Come Together on Syria

Following an eruption of violence in Syria, Russia and the U.S. jointly requested a closed-door meeting of the United Nations Security Council to discuss the developing crisis, according to Dmitry Polyanskiy, a top Russian envoy to the UN. That the two adversaries proposed the meeting, which was scheduled for March 10 in New York, is extraordinary, considering how tense their relations had become in recent years. 

That’s a good sign, because extraordinary measures are likely needed in the wake of massacres in northwestern Syria over the weekend. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based group, at least 1,311 persons, mostly civilians, have been killed. Following a Thursday ambush by forces loyal to deposed Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, government security forces responded with brutality. The Syrian authorities called in reinforcements, and thousands of jihadists poured into western regions where most of the country’s minority Alawite community live, slaughtering civilians and militia members alike.

The Alawites are seen as religious deviants by the Sunni Islamists, and as remnants of the ousted regime, and their position is precarious in post-Assad Syria. During the sectarian bloodbath that unfolded in and around the cities of Latakia and Tartous, Syrian forces reportedly also killed Christians.

These events pose the strongest challenge yet to the rule of Syria’s new leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, whose jihadi group the Hayat Tahrir-al Sham (HTS)—an offshoot of Al Qaeda—toppled Assad in December 2024. Many now question his professed commitment to unity and his proclamations that religious minorities have nothing to fear from the new government in Damascus. Coming from Sharaa, a former Al Qaeda leader, the credibility of these promises was always in doubt.