What pressed Syrian regime into scaling down combat readiness? The President of the Syrian regime, Bashar al-Assad, with army officers — 22 October 2019 (Syrian Presidency) The circular by which Bashar al-Assad, head of the Syrian regime and commander-in-chief of the Syrian Armed Forces, has ordered rolling back army readiness to pre-2012 levels, poses several questions regarding the decision’s timing and the political and economic factors that urged it? Under the circular, dispatched to relevant army entities on 10 January, combat readiness was scaled down in all departments of the Syrian military; reduced from 66 to 33 percent in administrative departments, and from 80 to 50 percent in their affiliated military units.