Opinions

Nagham Qudsiyeh For many years, the Caesar Act represented the single most severe constraint on Syria’s economy, despite a long history of US sanctions dating back to the 1970s. When the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act came into force in...

The visit of US Special Envoy Thomas Barrack to Tel Aviv was not a routine diplomatic stop, nor merely another item on a crowded regional agenda. It came at a moment of exceptional sensitivity, as the files of Gaza, Lebanon,...

There was a time when speaking of peace with Israel was considered treason, and even contemplating it was a luxury deemed inappropriate for an Arab state living at the heart of the conflict. Today, however, the irony is that those...

Nagham Koudsiah Transitional justice was not absent from the exceptional day Syrians marked to commemorate the first anniversary of the fall of the Assad regime. It featured prominently in the speech delivered by Syria’s interim president, Ahmad Al-Sharaa, during the...

By Sarkis Kassarjian As the end of 2025 approaches, the 10 March agreement between Syria’s interim government, led by Ahmad al-Sharaa, and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), headed by Mazloum Abdi, stands at a critical turning point. The deal, which...

The lifting of United States sanctions on Syria has taken a complex legislative and legal path that deprived Syrians of their joy six months after President Donald Trump announced in Riyadh, through Saudi and Turkish mediation, that sanctions on Syria...

Nearly a year ago, specifically on November 26, 2025, the Syrian scene tended toward calm with the exception of some limited skirmishes. International Resolution 2254 was virtually frozen, and the Geneva and Astana tracks were halted, while lines of control...

For many Syrians, the year that followed the “Deterrence of Aggression” battle, that was launched by Hay’at Tahrir Al-Sham in Idlib in northwestern Syria and led to the collapse of the former Syrian regime under Bashar Al-Assad in Damascus, has...

Critics often praise the values of the French Revolution, and secularists increasingly recite near-religious paeans to its principles and slogans, viewing it as the most significant modern transformation towards freedom, dignity, and independence. Yet, this article does not aim to...

With every new security incident targeting Alawites – and, more broadly, other minorities – memories resurface of the “Useful Syria” that former president Bashar Al-Assad once spoke about before his flight from the country. That imagined Syria was to be...