Nearly six months after the fall of the Assad regime, Syria’s new government faces immense challenges following fourteen years of civil war. One key issue is the ongoing threat posed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and al-Qaeda, both a domestic security concern and a test of the Interim Government’s (IG) credibility in the eyes of Western powers. The US-led Global Coalition has spent nearly a decade combating ISIL in Syria and continues to target al-Qaeda operatives. If Damascus can demonstrate competence in countering these groups, it may ease international concerns rooted in the IG leadership’s past ties—having broken with ISIL in 2013 and al-Qaeda in 2016. The current leadership, once part of Jabhat al-Nusrah and later Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), has now been unaffiliated with ISIL for twelve years and al-Qaeda for nine.
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