The fall of Bashad al-Assad is rippling throughout the Middle East.

Turkey announced today that it would reopen its embassy in Syria's capital,

Damascus, tomorrow, after closing it 12 years ago.

And Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has been traveling in the region.

He visited Jordan and Turkey yesterday and stopped in Baghdad today.

And he reiterated what the U.S. hopes to see in Syria.

In all of this, what's happening in Syria does have an important impact,

and it's very significant that Iraq, along with many other countries in the region and beyond,

will make best efforts to support the Syrian people

as they emerge from the Assad years.

For a perspective on how the shifting situation in Syria impacts the greater Middle East,

we turned to Ambassador James Jeffrey.

He previously served as U.S. ambassador to Turkey and Iraq and was a special

representative for Syria engagement during the Trump administration. He's now at the Wilson Center,

a Washington, D.C. think tank. Good to see you. Thanks for having me, on. So the end of the Assad regime

is not only about how Syria is reshaped, but the region more broadly as well. Let's just start

with some of Syria's neighbors and Turkey specifically.

They actually helped those Sunni rebels who overthrew the Assad regime to do so.

So what does the end of the Assad regime mean for Turkey?

What it means for Turkey, just like for the people of Syria as we saw in Leila's report and for everybody else around Syria

is a very good thing compared to the awful situation we had in the region and particularly

in Syria before.

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