00:00The overarching fear is still that of the power vacuum, that essentially Syria does find itself,
00:06and despite a pretty orderly transition being underway from the fall of Bashar al-Assad
00:11just a week ago, to an interim government that does include some cabinet members from the
00:17previous regime, it has been a quick and pretty orderly transition. Still, though,
00:21there is that fear that in this relative power vacuum, and certainly a moment of uncertainty,
00:27that there could be a resurgence, not just of Islamists, which there certainly is,
00:33because they will now be in power here in Damascus, but also of other terror groups,
00:38the Islamic State Organization being just one. It's also worth looking at what other countries
00:43are worried about happening here in Syria and why they are getting involved, and Israel and
00:48Turkey are the two countries who have essentially boots on the ground. Israel, with its airstrikes
00:55and its troops in the buffer zone between Israel and Syria, says that it wants to neutralize
01:01potential threats and also wants to make sure that weapons from the Syrian army that essentially has
01:07disintegrated don't fall into extremist hands. I mentioned Turkey as well. Turkey is certainly
01:13a country that is trying to take advantage of this new Syria that is coming out of Damascus.
01:20Its foreign minister saying very clearly it wants to eliminate the US-backed Kurdish militia,
01:25that that is its strategic goal. Turkey also making things very clear here in Damascus by
01:32opening its embassy, reopening its embassy that was closed since 2012 and the start of the civil
01:37war here in Damascus. It certainly believes that this new rebel leadership of Damascus
01:43can be to its advantage. In the meantime, the United States worried about other things. It
01:49has been fighting the Islamic State organization in Syria for quite a long while now and is worried
01:54that there might be a resurgence thereof during Islamist rule here in Syria.
