After Assad’s fall, a new Middle East ‘order’ is taking shape

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Fear and hope color the unfolding drama in Syria in equal shades. After the stunning fall of the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, attention has centered on the new dispensation taking shape in Damascus — and the powerful regional actors that may be influencing it. Analysts have already declared geopolitical winners and losers: Iran and Russia, Assad’s longtime backers, are licking their wounds; Turkey and Arab monarchies that supported the Syrian rebels to varying extents are in the ascendance. Israel, which carried out a ruthless bombing campaign on Syrian military targets and moved ground forces across the disputed Golan Heights into Syrian territory clearly feels emboldened, too.