According to the Reuters, from their bases in Moscow, Assad’s former military intelligence chief, Maj.-Gen. Kamal Hassan, and his billionaire cousin, Rami Makhlouf, are competing to build militias loyal to them inside Syria. They envision a fractured nation and each seeks control of the coastal, Alawite-majority regions that were the Assad family’s former powerbase, according to interviews with 48 sources and reviewed documents.
The investigation of the Reuters, as reported by the Jerusalem Post, reveals that Hassan and Makhlouf, who are virulently at odds with each other, have spent millions to finance over 50,000 fighters in total, though their claims are difficult to verify. Their operations target the Alawite community, the minority sect long associated with the Assad regime, capitalizing on widespread unemployment and insecurity since the regime’s fall. A prize for the plotters is control of a network of 14 hidden underground command rooms and weapons caches built along the coast during Assad’s final years.
Despite their efforts, the prospects for a successful, large-scale uprising currently appear low. Russia, which harbors the exiles, has so far withheld crucial support, prioritizing its continued access to military bases in Syria. Many within Syria’s Alawite community mistrust the figures, who are seen as opportunistic remnants of a brutal dictatorship. Furthermore, Syria’s new government is actively countering the plots through security crackdowns and a political outreach campaign led by Khaled al-Ahmad, a former Assad paramilitary leader who defected.
The plotting underscores the enduring threat posed by the scattered remnants of the old regime. As one researcher noted, this is an extension of the Assad dynasty’s internal power struggles, now focused on finding his replacement. While the exiled plotters dream of a return, their fractured schemes and the new government’s vigilance have, for now, contained the immediate danger—though the embers of conflict continue to smolder.