Muhsen AlMustafa, a researcher assistant specializing in civil-military relations at the Omran Center for Strategic Studies, told Enab Baladi that indicators of collapse have increased and become clear within the Syrian regime amid the rapid disintegration of its forces and its loss of control over strategic areas. AlMustafa considered that the announcement of a 50% salary increase and the calls for volunteering in auxiliary groups were merely attempts at psychological support for the collapsing army, but Assad did not have the time to rebuild the military institution.

As for the calls for volunteering and forming auxiliary groups, they were an attempt to mobilize the Alawite community through fear, and to increase the army’s core manpower to compensate for losses as quickly as possible, according to the researcher. He believes that the repeated administrative orders for ending retention over the past two years can at least be seen as premature steps taken before reaching the structure of the “professional army” that the regime was working on, as these decisions contributed to reducing the army’s manpower at a time when the regime believed it had achieved military victory.