Yesterday in Syria,

yesterday in Syria, after nearly 13 years of civil war, rebel forces took control of the capital, Damascus. For decades, the country had

been under the dictatorship of the Assad family. Here's our chief foreign affairs correspondent,

Yaroslav Trophimov. Well, the regime of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad has collapsed in a matter of days,

in a stunning collapse of a system that was built on murder, torture, brutality, and

repression that had a few parallels in the modern world.

So really, this closes the chapter on some of the darkest periods in the history of the Middle

East. Footage showed Syrians celebrating in the streets, prisoners walking out of confinement,

and residents standing on a toppled statue of Assad's father.

At the same time, it remains unknown how the fall of Assad could reverberate across the Middle East and the world.

What are the big questions you have today about the future of Syria? Well, the questions is obviously what next.

There are two ways it can end.

It can either end in a relative peace with the rebels agreeing to, basically, cooperate,

and avoiding another round of civil war, or they could go at each other again and

plunge country into a round of disaster.

Welcome to The Journal, our show about money, business, and power. I'm Jessica Mendoza. It's

Monday, December 9th.

Coming up on the show, a historic moment for Syria and a realignment of power in the Middle East. This episode is brought to you by CBO Global Markets.

CBO is a global exchange operator committed to building trusted markets worldwide.

CBO delivers cutting-edge trading, clearing, and investment solutions, and products in multiple asset classes, including equities, derivatives, and effects.

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The largest of the rebel groups that stormed the Syrian capital over the weekend is called Hayat Tarir al-Sham, also known as HTS.

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