#syria

#syria

Two meetings, held almost simultaneously towards the end of December, offered a stark illustration of the competing strategic visions now shaping the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. In Damascus, Turkiye's foreign, defence and intelligence chiefs met Syrian officials on December 22 as Ankara continued to prioritise the consolidation of state authority and stabilisation after the fall of Bashar al-Assad's government in Syria.

The Syrian army and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, have taken part in clashes in Aleppo city this week. The violence reflects a deep rift between the two sides, and many rounds of talks have so far failed to reach common ground. The SDF seeks a decentralised system of government with areas under its control having a certain level of autonomy. But the government in Damascus wants to centralise power. So, what does it all mean for Syria's unity?

Can Syria's new banknotes help rebuild the economy?

We do have an understanding regarding Syria. Now, with Syria, you know, your new president, I respect him, he's a very strong guy and that's what you need in Syria. You can't put a choir boy, you can't put somebody that's a perfect person, everything's nice, no problems in life. You have the opposite there, he's a strong guy. We get along with him great. I can't ask for any more, he's been with us all the way.

Recent clashes in coastal Syria not the fault of government Quotable Gamal Mansour of the University of Toronto says Syria's authorities are still in a fragile state-building phase, and the clashes in coastal Syria have exposed gaps in control. Video Duration 01 minutes 05 seconds 01:05 Video Duration 01 minutes 17 seconds 01:17 Video Duration 01 minutes 04 seconds 01:04 Video Duration 01 minutes 21 seconds 01:21

Live updatesLive updates, Hundreds of people take to the streets in Tartous and Latakia to demand the release of former soldiers who served ousted leader Bashar al-Assad.

On December 8, 2024, as the regime of Bashar al-Assad collapsed, Mukhtar was at his home in Idlib Governorate, in northwestern Syria. (For safety reasons, he asked to use a pseudonym.) A researcher with the Syria Justice and Accountability Centre (SJAC), he watched videos of rebel forces rolling into the Syrian capital, led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, whose precursor had been affiliated with Al Qaeda.

By the time the red sun slipped beyond the horizon, the playground was empty except for one little girl, nine-year-old Fouziah Alalawi, who stood staring at the bend where her father always appeared to pick her up from school. It was February 20, 2013, and war had become the background of her childhood: the distant thunder of shelling, the sharp percussion of gunfire, and the sudden quiet that made the adults tense.

With the fallout from the war in Syria as a backdrop, director Nour Alkheder longs for her father through memories, imagination and the fragments of a life uprooted by conflict. As Alkheder reflects on what was lost and what remains, she confronts the emotional weight of nostalgia and the love that binds her to her father and her homeland. I Love You More explores what it means to long for someone,

If ubiquity and handshakes were the only measures of success, Ahmed al-Sharaa would be diplomat of the year. Since he formally became president of Syria on 29 January 2025, the former leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham a jihadist group with an al-Qaida lineage has made a total of 21 public international trips to 13 countries. These include a visit to the UN general assembly, the climate change conference in Brazil, and numerous Arab summits.

When the al-Assad regime falls, Ammar, a Syrian lawyer and former Sednaya prison detainee, is determined to uncover the truth about Syria's missing. Haunted by the disappeared and his own imprisonment, he searches for answers in the ruins of Sednaya prison. Among classified documents, he discovers records of enforced disappearances and deaths, exposing the regime's brutality. With each case, Ammar pursues justice and closure, offering families a chance to grieve and heal.

Lying in bed recovering after his latest surgery, Ayman Ali retells the story of Syria's revolution through his wounds. His right eye, lost in an attack on a rebel observation post he was manning in 2012, is covered by yellow medical tape. Propped against the wall is a cane he uses to walk, after a rocket attack in 2014 left him with a limp. For 14 years, Ali dreamed of freedom and of justice.

December 8 marks the first anniversary of the fall of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad. The Assad family ruled Syria for over 50 years, with Hafez Assad in power from 1971 and then, after his death, his son Bashar taking over in 2000. The Assads' autocratic rule led to a popular uprising in 2011, then a brutal civil war that lasted almost 14 years.

United States President Donald Trump has called on Israel to maintain strong and true dialogue with Syria, adding it is very important that nothing takes place that will interfere with Syria's evolution into a prosperous state. The statement on Truth Social on Monday came days after Israel launched its latest incursion and strikes on Syria, killing 13 people in the countryside outside of Damascus in what the fledgling government of President Ahmed al-Sharaa decried as a war crime.

Hundreds of people from the Alawite religious minority, to which ousted President Bashar al-Assad belonged, were killed in the massacres in March. The violence erupted after attacks on the new government's security forces by armed groups aligned with the deposed autocrat. Counterattacks soon spiralled out of control to target civilians in the coastal regions that host the Alawite population. Seven of the defendants in the court on Tuesday were al-Assad loyalists, while the other seven were members of the new government's security forces.

Al-Mustafa said a political cooperation declaration signed by Damascus with the international coalition confirms Syria's role in combating terrorism and supporting regional stability. The agreement is political and until now contains no military components, he wrote in a post on X. The agreement makes Syria the 90th country to join the coalition, which aims to prevent foreign fighters from joining ISIL's ranks and eliminating the remaining elements of the group from across the Middle East.

Syria's interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa arrived in the United States on Saturday for an official visit that includes a scheduled meeting with President Donald Trump next week, a diplomatic gesture that was previously unimaginable. Al-Sharaa arrived a day after the US removed the Syrian president from a terrorism sanctions list, just one day after the United Nations Security Council lifted similar sanctions.

Some commentators described the murders as motivated by sectarian hatred and blamed the new Syrian government. Others blamed remnants of the Assad regime, who want to inflame community tensions. But further investigation later found that one of the dead men was known to be associated with an Assad-affiliated militia responsible for the deaths of as many as 700 people during the country's 14-year civil war.