Manufacturing Syria: HTS, Rojava, Iran, and the Consequences of Regime Change
Rev Left Radio
Breht O'Shea
4.8 • 3.6K Ratings
🗓️ 30 January 2026
⏱️ 167 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Syria is entering a new and terrifying phase.
In this episode Breht is joined by a panel of scholars and activists (Angie Bittar, Adam, Joma, Nur and Jalyssa) to take a clear-eyed look at what's unfolded over the last year and how it fits into the longer arc of the Syrian civil war, including the rapid collapse of the Assad-era order and the emergence of a new regime centered around HTS and Ahmad al-Sharaa (Jolani). Together, they break down the latest waves of mass violence and displacement across the coast, Suwayda, Aleppo, and Rojava, and ask what these events reveal about the new Syria.
From there, they turn to the Kurdish question. They discuss the SDF, the long history of US imperial instrumentalization of Kurdish forces, the recurring pattern of abandonment, and the growing pressure now facing Rojava amid shifting regional and international priorities. They also examine ongoing kidnappings and sect-based killings, the breakdown of accountability, and what the allegations surrounding Syrian security institutions tell us about the direction of the new order.
Finally, they zoom out to the information war. They map the propaganda narratives being pushed in Western and Zionist media, and offer practical "tells" for separating genuine reporting from information operations. Then, they close by asking what Syria teaches us about the current political moment: imperial strategy, proxy warfare, sectarian fragmentation, and what real solidarity demands.
Access a full list of all the sources used for this episode HERE
Donate to Jalyssa on Cash App: $JalyssaDugrot
Or donate at: BuyMeACoffee/Jalyssa
Check out Joma's great podcast: JDPOD
Previous Episodes on Syria and Rojava:
"The Situation in Syria" Episode w/ Angie last year
"On Syria: Civil War and US Imperialism" with Rania Khalek from 2018
"The Kurds and Revolutionary Rojava" with Dr. Redcrow from 2017
Interview with Murray Bookchin's Daughter on his Life and Legacy
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello everybody and welcome back to Rev Left Radio. |
| 0:08.4 | Okay, on today's episode, we have a monstrous episode. |
| 0:11.9 | I think it's somewhere around two, two and a half hours, but it's critical. |
| 0:15.6 | And we cover so much territory, both history and present and future of Syria in particular. |
| 0:23.8 | But we touch on Lebanon, on Yemen, the genocide in Gaza, and we touch on Iran in particular. |
| 0:32.3 | At the end of this conversation about Syria, what's happening with the you know, the SDF, the Syrian Democratic |
| 0:38.4 | forces and the Kurdish resistance in northeast Syria, the massacres and ethnic sectarian |
| 0:44.9 | attacks that have been occurring under Jolani's regime in Syria, backed by the U.S. and |
| 0:50.7 | Israel. |
| 0:51.5 | We cover so much of that. |
| 0:53.1 | We cover how to understand the propaganda coming out of West Asia, of the Middle East, right? |
| 0:58.3 | Like when Western corporate media talks about this region in particular, we run you through |
| 1:04.2 | a bunch of ways in which you can decipher and decode words and phrases and tactics informationally that they use to trick people or to |
| 1:14.1 | deceive people. We kind of unmask a lot of that. We spend a lot of time talking about the Kurdish |
| 1:19.0 | situation in Rojava because the discourse around this on the left in particular often centers on |
| 1:25.7 | or around that question. There's lots of, you know, I think unnecessary splits over the question. |
| 1:31.4 | And is it anarchist or is it Marxist and all of that? |
| 1:33.5 | And so we clarify a lot of that. |
| 1:36.0 | And for this episode, in order to get as well-rounded of a conversation as we possibly could |
| 1:42.2 | on such not only a complex but ever evolving topic. |
| 1:46.1 | We have on several guests. |
| 1:47.4 | We have on Angie. |
... |
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