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Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.

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Speaker 1: It's Tuesday, December three. The government says it will crack

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Speaker 1: down on sexual violence in the military and change the

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Speaker 1: rules for officers promotion, all part of a bid to

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Speaker 1: stop defense personnel self harming and taking their own lives.

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Speaker 1: That stories live right now at the Australian dot com Doreyu.

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Speaker 1: Just when you thought you had your head around the

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Speaker 1: Middle East, now there's fresh conflict in Syria. Dictator Bashah

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Speaker 1: al Assad is on a mission to reclaim the city

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Speaker 1: of Aleppo from rebels who seized it in a surprise

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Speaker 1: raid over the weekend. Assad is backed by Iran, Russia

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Speaker 1: and Hesbalah. But they're all a little busy right now.

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Speaker 1: Today our chief international correspondent, Cameron Stewart joins me to

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Speaker 1: sort out who's who and what they're fighting for. It

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Speaker 1: was a stunning and unexpectedly successful assault, the relative stability

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Speaker 1: brought about by decades of dictator rule destroyed in a

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Speaker 1: matter of days. In Aleppo's town squares, Rebels fired guns

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Speaker 1: into the sky. Music blared from vehicles as they skidded

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Speaker 1: across concrete and monuments to Syrian president Bashah al Assad

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Speaker 1: were toppled for days. The attack went unanswered by Syria's military.

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Speaker 1: Its allies in Russia and Iran finally sent reinforcements for

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Speaker 1: the regime to Hummer in the nation's northwest. The rebels

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Speaker 1: storming into Aleppo on the back of Toyota Hiluxes are

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Speaker 1: in Islamist militia called Hayat Tarier a cham HTS. Cameron

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Speaker 1: Stewart is the Australian's chief international correspondent.

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Speaker 2: When the Syrian Civil War pretty much ended in about

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Speaker 2: twenty eighteen, they had a bastion up in the northwest

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Speaker 2: of the country and they've had their own little community

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Speaker 2: basically that they've run without being harassed by the Syrian government.

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Speaker 2: And what they did was they took this opportunity that

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Speaker 2: it was a great time to give a go at

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Speaker 2: knocking off Bashah l Assad, of course, the Syrian dictator.

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Speaker 2: They've been waiting to do this for a long time.

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Speaker 2: And so what they did was they charged into Aleppo,

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Speaker 2: the huge northern city up there, and they went through

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Speaker 2: it in seventy two hours. And I think they even

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Speaker 2: shocked themselves how quickly they took the city and all

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Speaker 2: of a sudden, you have a civil war which has

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Speaker 2: been reignited.

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Speaker 1: Syria's civil war began in twenty eleven, growing out of

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Speaker 1: the so called Arab Spring uprisings, where mass protests across

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Speaker 1: the Middle East began calling for democratic reform. In Syria,

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Speaker 1: the protesters were demanding an end to the regime of

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Speaker 1: dictator Bashah al Asad, a former ophthalmologist and soldier who's

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Speaker 1: been in power since two thousand, when he took over

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Speaker 1: from his father, Hafez al Assad. Russia swept in on

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Speaker 1: the side of Bashi al Assad, helping him launch a

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Speaker 1: ruthless crackdown as the rebellion ballooned into a full blown war.

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Speaker 1: From twenty fifteen, Russian airstrikes killed tens of thousands of

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Speaker 1: Syrians and shifted the war in Asad's favor. But now

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Speaker 1: Russia's busy handling its own brutal war in Ukraine.

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Speaker 2: So the situation has come about because of two seismic

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Speaker 2: events in the world. One was the October seven Hamas

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Speaker 2: massacre of Israelis and also Russia's invasion of Ukraine. So

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Speaker 2: what that's done is it's knocked out the three main

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Speaker 2: allies of Assad, the three allies who helped him win

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Speaker 2: that civil war from twenty eleven to twenty eighteen, and

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Speaker 2: they were Hesbalah in Lebanon, and also Iran, and also Russia.

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Speaker 2: And each of those allies is now involved fighting against democracies,

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Speaker 2: very much weakened, very much distracted, and very much not

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Speaker 2: in the mood to be sending an awful lot of

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Speaker 2: military assistance as they did last time to Asad. So

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Speaker 2: suddenly he now finds himself much more alone than he

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Speaker 2: ever was, with this rebel group advancing very quickly towards him.

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Speaker 1: Let's talk about that trio cam Iran, Hesbala and Russia.

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Speaker 1: Hezbla is essentially a puppet of Iran. It's the way

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Speaker 1: Iran flexes its muscle in Lebanon and therefore inflicts pain

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Speaker 1: on Israel, on Iran's behalf. But what's Russia's role in

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Speaker 1: this game?

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Speaker 2: Russia, It considers Syria a very valuable, its most valuable

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Speaker 2: ally in the region. And in twenty fifteen, Russia effectively

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Speaker 2: turned around the civil war in Asad's favor by providing

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Speaker 2: troops and air support. And you might recall very very

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Speaker 2: vigorous and quite brutal Russian bombing of Syrian cities and

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Speaker 2: that really did turn the war in Assards. In fact, frankly,

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Speaker 2: it saved him as a president. So he's been very

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Speaker 2: grateful to Russia ever since. Now Russia is still its biggest,

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Speaker 2: his biggest supporter. It still has warplanes in the country

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Speaker 2: and in fact, we've actually seen some of these planes

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Speaker 2: being deployed to bomb Aleppo in the last few days,

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Speaker 2: because after the rebels took it over. But the thing is,

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Speaker 2: the Russians took a lot of the military support they

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Speaker 2: had in Syria out of Syria and brought it back

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Speaker 2: to Russia to be deployed.

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Speaker 3: Against Ukraine in the war against Ukraine.

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Speaker 2: And so there are far fewer Russian forces now in

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Speaker 2: Syria than there were before, and it really is an

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Speaker 2: open question as to how much use they are going

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Speaker 2: to be. Certainly there'll be much use, much less used

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Speaker 2: to Asad than they were last time.

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Speaker 1: And what's in it for Vladimir Persian to be propping

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Speaker 1: up for al Assad.

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Speaker 2: He wants to be a geostrategic player, He wants to

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Speaker 2: have influence around all of Russia's region and with Syria,

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Speaker 2: you know, he has a base there that he can

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Speaker 2: propagate Moscow's interests political, strategic, economic from that base, and

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Speaker 2: he is He worries that if he loses Assad, then

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Speaker 2: Russia loses its influence in the Middle East.

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Speaker 1: The rebel army that's taken Aleppo back has connections to Turkey.

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Speaker 1: What do we know about that relationship.

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Speaker 2: Yes, it's a very shady relationship. Before this group HTS

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Speaker 2: which is what the rebel group is. It's an offshoot

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Speaker 2: of the Nusra Front, which in fact was allied to

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Speaker 2: Al Qaedra at one point, although they are distancing themselves

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Speaker 2: very much from that. They say they are a much

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Speaker 2: more moderate group. But they're still listed as a terror

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Speaker 2: group by the United States, and they are being backed

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Speaker 2: by Turkey, but we don't quite know to what extent

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Speaker 2: they're being backed by Turkey. Turkey does not like Asad,

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Speaker 2: it wants Assad out, but how much it actually likes

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Speaker 2: this group is very unclear too, because you have an

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Speaker 2: Islamist group that is labeled as a terror organization fighting Assad,

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Speaker 2: who of course is backed by Russia, Iran and HESBLA,

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Speaker 2: and of course is no friend of the West either.

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Speaker 1: Coming up, the rebel militia was formally linked to Al Qaeda,

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Speaker 1: So is it going to be kinder to civilians than

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Speaker 1: side that's after the break. Presumably the enemies of Bashah

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Speaker 1: alas Sade, for example, the United States and perhaps Israel

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Speaker 1: would be glad that there's a distraction going on for

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Speaker 1: him now, that that Syria is now riven again by

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Speaker 1: civil war, and that he'll have to turn his focus

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Speaker 1: on defeating this insurgency in Aleppo. But what does it

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Speaker 1: mean for the rest of the region? Cam If anything.

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Speaker 2: It certainly destabilizes the region Claire. It's amazing how it's

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Speaker 2: been like this ever since October seven. It has spread

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Speaker 2: like a bushfire, fairly slowly. Obviously into Gaza. We've had

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Speaker 2: the warring Gaza, then we had it spread into Lebanon.

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Speaker 2: We've had the Hooties in Yemen being attacking and being bombed.

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Speaker 2: We've had Iranian bat militia in Syria and in Iraq

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Speaker 2: attack Israel. I mean, the region is very slowly going

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Speaker 2: up in flames, and it's getting larger and larger with

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Speaker 2: every passing month. And so to have the possibility of

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Speaker 2: another civil war in Syria is hugely destabilizing for the

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Speaker 2: entire region. And we don't know yet of course what

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Speaker 2: where this offensive will go. I think the rebels have

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Speaker 2: surprised themselves by going so quickly so far, and so

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Speaker 2: it's going to be interesting to see whether they want

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Speaker 2: to keep pushing on towards Damascus to really threaten Assad's

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Speaker 2: actual existence. And of course it's unclear to what degree

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Speaker 2: the allies of Asad will come to his aid, because

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Speaker 2: as we said, they are so weak and compared to

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Speaker 2: what they once were. So will Assad actually mount a

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Speaker 2: major offensive to try and retake a leper or is

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Speaker 2: he not strong enough? And they're the questions I think

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Speaker 2: in the next three or four days we're going to

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Speaker 2: see answered.

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Speaker 1: Ordinary Syrians have suffered terribly under Bashah al Assad. He's

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Speaker 1: a brutal dictator. His regime has been accused of shocking

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Speaker 1: crimes of terror against his own people. But is there

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Speaker 1: any suggestion that life would be better for them under

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Speaker 1: the rebel army.

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Speaker 2: People are actually fleeing the government controlled areas Assyria and

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Speaker 2: going up to the rebel held areas that includes in

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Speaker 2: the northwest which are controlled by the Hts, and in

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Speaker 2: the northeast of.

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Speaker 3: Syria, which is controlled by the Kurds.

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Speaker 2: And the reason why they're doing that is because the

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Speaker 2: basics of life up there are seen to be better

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Speaker 2: than they are in the government controlled areas, and that

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Speaker 2: means very simple things like electricity and water supplies, etc.

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Speaker 2: They're much better organized than they are in the government

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Speaker 2: controlled areas, and I think that flight speaks a lot

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Speaker 2: to the fact that Assad is very much on the nose,

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Speaker 2: and that's partly because he promised to be the civil

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Speaker 2: war to improve the economy.

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Speaker 3: It really didn't happen.

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Speaker 2: The economic conditions across the government controlled areas are very

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Speaker 2: very grim, and people who have been cheering their rebels

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Speaker 2: as they came in to a Leppo and move further south,

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Speaker 2: locals have been going out and cheering them. So I

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Speaker 2: think that says a lot about how Asad is on

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Speaker 2: the nose.

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Speaker 1: You mentioned the Kurds. That's an ethnic group that's been

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Speaker 1: fighting for their own homeland for many, many generations. Now

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Speaker 1: they're managing to run what seems like a fairly functional

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Speaker 1: state in the northeast of Syria. Who's backing the Curds

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Speaker 1: now and what role do they play in relation to

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Speaker 1: the other side regime.

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Speaker 2: Well, they've basically got the northeast of Syria. Now that

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Speaker 2: was sort of after the Civil war, they just occupied

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Speaker 2: that the government troops could not come back and retake it,

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Speaker 2: so it's almost like an autonomous region for them at

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Speaker 2: the moment.

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Speaker 3: Clear, even though it's very unofficial.

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Speaker 2: The US, though, has backed the Kurds, and in fact

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Speaker 2: there's US troops stationed in the eastern there's several hundred

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Speaker 2: of them there. Now there's no suggestion that the US

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Speaker 2: is going to suddenly back the curves to move against

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Speaker 2: a sad but they are a big player in this

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Speaker 2: whole equation, and you know they're sitting there and they

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Speaker 2: don't want to sard in power either. So there's lots

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Speaker 2: of opposition groups who have different ideologies up in northern

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Speaker 2: Syria that want a side out of power, but they

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Speaker 2: don't necessarily agree with each other.

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Speaker 1: Cameron Stewart is The Australian's chief international correspondent. The Family

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Speaker 1: Court has granted cross sex hormone treatment to a gender

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Speaker 1: dys for a fifteen year old born a boy but

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Speaker 1: who has identified as a girl since the age of three.

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Speaker 1: It's a complex case and the judge says there's a

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Speaker 1: lack of legal material about whether kids who transition end

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Speaker 1: up with regret that's an exclusive live now at the

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Speaker 1: Australian dot Com dot a