The Opponent Actors in the Syrian Crisis: Purposes and Approaches

The recent political crisis in Syria has forced international actors to adopted different policies toward the Syrian regime based on their own national interests. Meanwhile, continuous efforts of some international and regional actors to overthrow Bashar al-Assad’s regime are one of the most complicated aspects of the Syrian crisis. This paper explores the main incentives of the most important regional and international actors seeking regime change in this country. Accordingly, the purposes and approaches of the U.S. as the most important international actor, and Saudi Arabia and Turkey, as the most influential regional actors, have been examined. The hypothesis of the paper is that these countries have a high level of common interests in relation to Syria. The U.S. intends to weaken the Iran-led axis of resistance in favor of the Zionist regime, while Saudi Arabia seeks to expand its influence sphere and challenge the Iranian geopolitical and ideological influence in the Middle East. Finally Turkey is seeking to play a more influential role in Islamic countries in general and the Middle East in particular. Limiting the Iranian influence in the region is the common interest of these countries.