Israel is celebrating the fall of Assad because it breaks the noose that Iran had been patiently tightening around Israel’s borders in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria. Tehran’s pincer is now broken and rendered useless. From the point of view of Israel’s wider conflict with the Islamic Republic, the collapse of Assad’s regime is a strategic victory.

Syria’s Bashar al-Assad and his years-long regime have fallen, but the country remains a battleground for an array of actors seeking to secure interests in what may emerge to be a dangerous power vacuum.

The first commercial flight since the ouster of president Bashar al-Assad took off from Damascus airport on Wednesday, offering Syrians a glimmer of hope after years of war and decades of oppression.